A Chance to be a Hero
by Baloshua
Summary: Counter guardian EMIYA was having a rough day. He sacrificed himself for the one person he wanted to kill and ended up back in the services of Alaya. That is, until an old man (troll) decided to intervene for justice (amusement). With the chance to be a true hero, Shirou Emiya embarks on another quest to be hero and redeem himself for his past crimes.
1. Chapter 1

Counter guardian Shirou Emiya floated around in a void as he contemplated how unfair, cruel, and absolutely stupid his life had been up until now. He had been summoned into the Holy Grail war by his former girlfriend with the goal of collecting and winning said item. He, on the other hand, wanted to go and kill his past self in the hopes that he would be able to delete himself from existence and be free from being a counter guardian.

Unfortunately, he ended up sacrificing his life instead and found himself back in the waiting room for counter guardians. A space outside of time that no human could step foot in.

"Where did I go wrong?" Shirou muttered as he floated around aimlessly. "Even after all these years my luck hasn't even improved a bit." He let out a bitter laugh. "I guess that'll never change."

"Now, now, don't think like that." A voice sounded, causing Shirou's trained instincts to go on high alert.

"Who's there? Alaya! Is that you!" Shirou yelled out into the void, earning a chuckle in surprise.

"My boy, don't you think Alaya is a girls name? I don't sound anything like a woman." The voice responded with a hint of amusement and mirth. Suddenly, a shape appeared in a flash of light, causing Shirou to avert his eyes in response. When he looked at who had appeared, he suddenly turned very pale.

"Shit..." Shirou cursed as he eyed the old man in front of him. He may have looked old, but the dangerous gleam in his eyes and the amount of magic radiating off of him gave a different impression.

"Hello there, shirou! It sure has been a while, hasn't it?" The old man greeted with a grin as he spread his hands like he wanted a hug. Shirou, on the other hand, looked like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Nooooo! Stay back! Get away from me, Zelretch!" Shirou screamed like a little girl as he tried to float away from the old wizard marshal. "Alaya! Where the hell are you! Save meeeeee!"

Zelretch pouted. "Oi! Stop trying to alert her. Do you know how hard it was for me to bypass her and find you here?"

Shirou paused. "Eh? You're looking for me?"

The wizard sighed. "You haven't gotten wiser." He muttered with a shake of his head before his cheery smile appeared back on his face. "Anyways, I came here to tell you some great news! I have chosen you for a very special job!"

"Nooooooo!" Shirou screamed as he pointed an accusing finger. "I've seen what happened to your little 'helpers' and I have no intention of turning out like them!"

"Relax. It's honestly not that hard." Zelretch sighed as he rubbed his gloved hands. "I promise you won't go insane... or burnt, fried, frozen, or any other of those nasty stuff." The wizard said with a wave of his hand. "You called yourself a hero, right? Well, there just so happens to be a place in need of saving, so I'm calling on you."

Shirou scowled. "I'm no hero. I gave that up a long time ago."

"But where I'm going to be sending you, it could happen." Zelretch said with a twinkle in his eye. "It'll also help that I'll be able to tear you away from Alaya. You wouldn't have to live the life of a counter guardian ever again."

Shirou's eyes widened. Release from being a counter guardian? Sign him up! He may have been afraid of the old wizard marshal, but he knew that the man was powerful enough to do whatever the hell he wanted. Plus, he hated Alaya with a passion. Getting away from her? That was the reason why he tried to kill his younger self, after all.

"Alright." He said after a moment of thought. "You've got me. Where the hell are you sending me?"

The dangerous grin almost made him regret his decision. Almost. "A magical place called Remnant. It's not on earth so Alaya won't have any power over you there. I'll explain it to you when we get there."

"Eh?" Shirou grunted with a confused look. "Not on earth? You can do stuff like that?"

"I'm the wielder of the second magic, kid. Nothing is impossible." Zelretch boasted with a grin. Suddenly, the entire space seemed to shake and everything seemed to ripple like a pebble being dropped in water. "There's not much time. Alaya has sensed my presence and is beginning to intervene. Shirou, grab my hand!"

Normally, shirou would have pointed out how weird that was, but he didn't argue. He stretched his hand forward and grasped Zelretch's gloved one. Zelretch muttered something under his breath and the two of them disappeared in a colorful rainbow light.

* * *

They reappeared in a lush forest and Shirou immediately collapsed onto the ground as the dizziness overwhelmed his senses and took away the feeling of his legs on the ground.

"Stand up, shirou." Zelretch ordered with an amused grin. "Don't tell me you're that dizzy after only one ride."

"Shut up, old man." Shirou groaned as he stood himself up with a little bit of effort. "So... we're not on gaia anymore?"

"Yup." Zelrect answered with a popping sound. "Alaya isn't here either. Even if there are humans here, the collective will hasn't manafested. Gaia is also here, but the planet has long since died out. You don't have to worry about getting pulled back for counter guardian duty."

Shirou breathed a sigh of relief. "Great. But you did say that there were some different things about this world?"

Zelretch stroked his beard. "Hm... yes. I'll just give you a run down on the basics." He cleared his throat. In this world, there is no such thing as magic like the ones you and I use. here, they use a substance called 'dust' to perform similar feats."

Shirou frowned. "So... I won't be able to use magic in this world?"

Zelretch grinned. "Try it. Go ahead and trace a blade. I'm sure you'll be surprised." Shirou frowned for a moment before closing his eyes in concentration. He searched his inner world: Unlimited blade works, and began tracing two of his favorite blades that he had grown accustomed to over the years.

"Trace on."

Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in his hands. A pair of swords that had a yin and yang symbol design respectively. They were married swords, and would always return back to the users hand as long as he held the other. Kinda like a married couple.

The thing about tracing was that they were always inferior. No copy, no matter how realistic or original it looked, would never be able to stand against the original. They were simply flawed.

The two swords, however, felt... complete. Which should be impossible since Gaia would reject the concept of it being the original and only allow it to remain materialized for several minutes.

But...

He wasn't on gaia anymore.

Realization dawned on Shirou's face and Zelretch's grin widened. "Yes. Gaia isn't here to refute your projections. You literally copied the original weapons down to every last detail. You may believe it's impossible, but seeing is believing."

Shirou continued to stare at his weapons in amazement. Back on earth, his magic was certainly odd but extremely versatile and powerful. Now, he was able to create perfect noble phantasms. Weapons wielded by legendary heroes themselves.

Yes... with this ability he could be the hero he always dreamed of! Of course, he knew that it would be impossible to save everyone, but he didn't have an excuse not to save someone who needed saving. He had the power to change all of that.

He grinned at Zelretch. "This is great, old man! Anything else I should know?"

Zelretch nodded. "This world is known as Remnant. The people here are much more advanced than our world, but some of them have kept to the old ways."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Old ways?"

"Mhm. Some of them use highly advanced weapons in the form of swords, scythes, spears. You name it, they got it. The only difference is that they are all made out of futuristic technology." His eyes gained another twinkle. "Plus, some of their weapons also function as a gun as well."

Shirou frowned. "So... like a cross between a knife and a rifle?"

"A knifle." Zelretch answered with a chuckle at his own joke before his face grew serious. "Also... just know that this place is inhabited by many dangerous creatures. I believe the people of this world call them 'grimm' if I'm not mistaken."

"Grimm?" Shirou echoed before the sound of multiple growlings caught their attention. Shifting his eyes toward the trees, shirou's jaw dropped as he saw what had made the noise.

There were five of them. Each having the mainframe of a bear. If a bear had pitch black skin, red eyes, and white spikes, it would look like the creatures right in front of him.

"These are grimm?" Shirou questioned as he raised his blades. "Meh. I've seen dead apostles worse than these."

Zelretch chuckled. "I know. Which is why I'm going to be leaving."

Shirou turned to him with wide eyes. "What?! You're not going to help me?!"

"Why should I? You've faced worse before." Zelretch said with a grin as he began to shine brightly with rainbow colored lights. "By the way, you should probably take a look at yourself. It seems that transporting you here has made some... odd effects."

Shirou blinked at that before growling. "You sly old man! Get your ass back over here!" Zelretch just grinned and disappeared with a *pop*, leaving behind a stunned shirou and several confused grimm.

"...Screw this." Shirou muttered as he hefted his blades and turned towards the grimm. "This was supposed to be a great day for me. I'm not a counter guardian. I found a new chance at life. And I also found out that being a hero in this world was a profession. But then the old man had to go and ruin my day!" He snarled, making even the Grimm back away at the savagery in his tone.

Although, the smell of anger seemed to smell well for the grimm and they all charged at once to tear apart the stories protagonist. Shirou quickly raised his blades and dodged to the side as the first grimm charged at him, slicing the beasts legs with one easy strike. The beast tumbled to the ground and Shirou hoped that it would dissuade the remaining 4 grimm, but they simply snarled and pounced towards him.

"They're like bears." Shirou muttered as he pounded Bakuya's butt straight into another grimms head, smashing it into the ground immediately while he swept his left Kanshou in an arc and eviscerated another one with a screech. He watched in fascination as the grimm dropped to the ground and began dissolving into dust and scatter in the wind.

"They turn to dust?" Shirou muttered as he looked down at his blade and saw the grimm residue rot away into dust. "Interesting." He eyed the last one that was standing and gave it a blank look as he threw Bakuya with surprising speed and impale the grimm through the head. The bear dissolved and the black blade flew back into his hand.

"This place is certainly interesting." Shirou muttered as he eyed the spots where the grimm had been. "But what did Zelretch mean that I should take a look at myself?"

He paused for a moment in thought before he let go of his blades and stuck them in the ground. He held up his right hand and created a simple glass mirror to examine himself with.

What he saw nearly made him drop it in shock.

He was younger. He wasn't the 6 foot tan magus that everyone knew him for, but he looked like his old self. Orange hair, white skin, and a handsome Japanese face that Rin and Sakura fawned over.

His clothing was still the same and seemed to have shrunken down to match his size. The only thing that was on his mind, however, was...

"How the hell did I shrink!?" Shirou yelled in annoyance as he looked upon himself. "Damn it, Zelretch! I'm never using your stupid 2nd magic ever again! You hear me? Never!"

The jump must have turned him back into a child. While the second magic also dealt with parallel worlds, it also dealt with the reversal of time. Kinda like how the 5th magic except the process was different. It was also probably how Zelretch kept himself looking like an old man instead of a shriveled up old prune.

"Ugh..." Shirou muttered as he face palmed. "It doesn't matter. Right now, I should probably get out of this forest and find myself some place to rest." He looked around. "These... Grimm might be nearby."

He grabbed his swords and set out. Thus, destroying the threads of fate for the world of huntsmen and huntresses.

* * *

Shirou hummed to himself as he swirled his wash rag around the edge of a silver cup. Satisfied, he placed it down and grabbed another one before repeating the process.

Currently, he had found himself living on this strange world for three years now and he could definitely say that he was enjoying it. Back when he was doing hero work, he was often too busy to take a meager job like this. It felt good to do something that didn't exactly have anything to do with saving lives.

What sort of job was he doing?

Bartending.

It was a humble job. Certainly one that benefitted him the most.

"You know, it always amazes me how you're able to bring in so many customers." A lady said from a nearby table as she smoked a cigarette.

Shirou sighed. "Hazel, you know smoking is bad for you, right?"

The lady cackled. "Relax. I'm not smoking anything bad. Just a little bit of dust. Nothing to be worried about." She said as she took another puff of her one-hitter. Shirou sighed and went back to washing the dishes. "And you haven't answered my question. How is it that you're able to bring in so many customers? Is it because of your looks?" She teased with a sly smile.

Shirou frowned at that. His looks? He didn't know if that really played a part in anything. He wasn't that handsome, was he?

Let it be known that shirou emiya, despite having lived through 49 years of life, still couldn't understand the desires of women. He was so oblivious that a girl could strip in front of him and he wouldn't be able to tell that they wanted him.

Ironically, it took Sakura forcing herself on him to get with her. And that was after 25 years of knowing her.

"I don't know. I wouldn't understand why." He said as he put the remaining dishes away and began scrubbing the bar in front of him.

"Oblivious as always." Hazel muttered as she stubbed out her cigarette. "If you weren't so good at attracting business I would have kicked you out a long time ago."

Shirou smiled. "We both know you don't mean that."

"That's true. I've gotten quite fond of you. I still remember the day when you turned up at my bar asking for a job." Her face took on a wistful look. "You were absolutely adorable! You were much smaller back then."

Shirou shook his head at that. "Was that the only reason you took me in?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Hazel said with a shrug as she took out a remote and turned on one of the nearby TV's that were hanging around the bar. The screen flickered on to show what remained of a crime scene that was at a nearby bank. Police sirens flashed and the camera panned towards a bunch of beat up looking men that were being moved on a stretcher into the back of an ambulance.

 _"Authorities have taken a group of bank robbers into custody after receiving a tip from the vigilante the public has now dubbed 'Archer'. No one knows who, or what, the vigilante is. There have not been any eyewitness reports, and he has only appeared on video cameras with his face obscure by some kind of red cloth. While most people are pleased and call this man a hero, the government thinks differently, calling this man a 'threat to society'._

Hazel whistled. "Geez. You're really causing up a ruckus."

"I'm used to it." Shirou said with a shrug. He had gone out several times and had become a sort of vigilante that goes around stopping crime. Of course, he always left them unconscious and never dead. He reserved death for those who really got underneath his skin. So far, no one has managed to do that.

"You know, if you want, you could probably join one of the local academies." Hazel suggested.

Shirou sighed. "I don't know. I already have the experience, so it'll just be a waste of time for me to go to any of the academies."

Hazel was silent for a moment before she smirked. "Perhaps Beacon? That school is only for the best of the best. Even showing up to the initiation and not passing could still be called a great honor in itself."

"I doubt the headmaster would accept me if I just simply replied. There's nothing really special on my resume, you know?" Shirou grumbled.

"Not if I have any say in the matter." Hazel said with a grin, causing Shirou to eye her with a frown.

"Come again?"

"I'm a huntress too, ya know." Hazel said with a smug smile as she stood up. "I actually know the headmaster quite well, actually. We worked together on a few missions back in my glory day."

"Your... glory days."

"Yes." Hazel said with a nod. "As one of the most experienced huntsman to ever come out of Beacon, I could recommend you to Ozpin. He's the new headmaster of Beacon ever since the last one retired. Of course, I'd only recommend you if you want me to."

Shirou was silent for a moment in thought as he went over what she said. He didn't see any reason why he shouldn't take the deal. He'd explore more of remnant, be a hero, and actually have the benefit of making friends or meeting new people.

It'll also give him a little bit more freedom. The city of Vale and Beacon weren't too far away, so he would be able to keep in touch with his adoptive mom.

Plus, he couldn't really turn his adoptive mother down whenever she asked him for something. It just wasn't in his nature.

Shirou sighed. "Alright. Sign me up."

Hazel grinned and clapped her hands. "I can't believe how fast you've grown. My little boy is heading to beacon! Oh I just know that you're going to be one of the most popular kids there! And when you finally become famous, people will remember me as the mother of the greatest huntsman to ever live!" She said with a giggle as she ran off to the backroom to go and make a call. Shirou watched her leave with an amused smile before he turned back to his work and glared at the coffee stain that had put itself on the counter.

"Gonna need more rags." Shirou muttered as he left to go find some rags.

* * *

 **Hey guys! I'm taking a break from my oc story and going to another story! It's a new crossover story between Fate:stay night and RWBY! In truth, I wanted to make this story first before The Savior of heroes, but I wanted to wait until Volume 3 had come out before I got started on it.**

 **If you like it, leave a favorite and Review to tell me what you think about the story!**

 **-baloshua**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! This is the second chapter for Archer of Remnant.**

 **Honestly, I'm surprised for the amount of favorites and reviews right off of the bat and wanted to thank you all for listening.**

 **That being said, I can see that there are a few questions that needed to be answered, So I'll try to answer most of them right now.**

 **Fenerath: The second magic is said to not only govern the parallel worlds, but it is also said to govern time travel. Tokou Aozaki, the sister of Aoko Aozaki, has claimed that the second magic governs time travel when she discussed the aspects behind the 5th magic, which also utilizes some form of time travel. If you don't believe me, look it up on the Type-Moon-Wiki. Also, Hazel technically isn't a mother figure for him. As you say, he's already self sufficient and is able to take care of himself. While she may claim to act as his mother figure for the transcripts, he just sees her as more of a close friend or big sister.**

 **There are also some reviews saying that Emiya isn't really acting in line on how he usually acts. That is true. In the beginning of the story, he's not exactly doing anything that compares to his life as a counter guardian: Stopping world events, mass killing, Etc. At most, he's just going around stopping crimes because those things are a much simpler matter for him. When he starts getting back into work as a 'hero' he'll start reverting slightly back into his old persona to adapt to his life as a huntsman.**

 **If any of you want to point any flaws in my logic, feel free to post a review. I won't mind.**

 **Now, continuing with the story!**

 **Edit: I have now changed the students noble phantasms from D and C, to E on behalf of reviews.**

* * *

Shirou stared out the window of the flying airship as he observed the landscape below him. Despite seeing many flying airships fly around the city almost every day, it was different for him to actually be riding one. It was much better than an airplane in his opinion since he was able to walk around the ship freely without being cramped up in a seat. It was sort of like a cruise ship in the sky.

Indeed, much better than an airplane.

Of course, being in ships like these always put him on edge a little bit. He had once been on a cruise ship down in the pacific for a little bit of a vacation before it got overrun by dead apostles. Needless to say, it kept him far away from any kind of large transportation for a while.

He had heard reports of aircrafts going down because of Grimm attacks, but he didn't think he'd have to worry about it here. The ships that got attacked were transport ships. This one, while a ship meant for transporting students, was outfitted with guns missiles as a defense mechanism against flying grimm. Still, that didn't mean he had to fully relax. Even the most heavily armed defenses could be overcome in the blink of an eye. He had to be ready.

That said, he took the time to enjoy himself. The place served free ice cream and drinks along with free breakfast which he piled his plate with. He had to wake up early to board the ship and totally skipped out on breakfast. Something he never usually did since he always kept to his belief that it was the most important meal of the day.

He tore his gaze off from the window and looked around at the other soon-to-be students walking around the area. As his eyes landed on their weapons, he immediately felt their history and information go straight into his brain. Even weapons that were disguised as necklaces and bracelets couldn't hide themselves from his eyes. He knew a weapon when he saw one. Zelretch wasn't kidding when he said that the people really loved to mash guns and other weapons together. More than 95% of the weapons he analyzed had a second transformation as a gun.

There was also the fact that most of the weapons were _definitely_ stronger than the weapons of his age. While some of the weapons could be compared to regular mystic codes, others could reach the level of an E-ranked noble phantasm. An incredible feat in its own right.

He didn't really envy them, though. His noble phantasms were more than a match for any weapon they had. Spending several minutes with a guy who literally had hundreds of weapons in his arsenal and used them as projectile weapons served him better than he thought.

He winced as he remembered that fight. Gilgamesh hadn't exactly taken it easy on him. After letting his past self win against him, he was pounded into the ground by Gilgamesh. Luckily, he managed to fake his death and observe everything from behind the scenes. It hadn't exactly helped that he didn't have a master at the time. The only thing that kept him going was sheer will and determination. Something he understood better than anyone.

Plus, he got an ass-load of weapons after dealing with the golden prick.

Suck on that, Gilgamesh!

The noble phantasms he created were better than what he could have ever expected. Although, some of them put a damper on his spirits like Excalibur. He still remembered his faithful servant and the projection was so perfectly copied that it reminded him so much like her. Of course, he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. His servant would hate to see him lamenting like a wuss and would probably beat him up if he were here.

He had also replicated more noble phantasms as well, but soon found himself getting tired to the point of exhaustion. As a safety measure, he had limited himself to the use of only no more than three noble phantasms at once. And if he wanted to smash people with a hail of blades, he'd have to use the lower ranked noble phantasms to do so. Of course, he'd try to find a way around that.

He also managed to get Hazel to unlock his aura after coming up with an explanation as to why it hadn't even activated. Essentially, it was a manifestation of the soul that was used mainly for defensive purposes. If this was his old world, all of the hunters in the world would have been branded with a sealing designation. They were doing what the Einzbern family had been trying to recover and perfect. **The third magic: Heavens Feel.** It was the magic that was able to physically manifest the soul. An ability that was long lost to the family that created it. He knew that Old man Acht would be rolling in his grave if he saw this place.

He had tried experimenting with the use of Aura and his magic circuits, but nothing really exciting came up so he scrapped the idea of trying to merge the two of them. After all, he wasn't exactly a professional like rin. If she was here, she could have known what to do.

He sighed and stood up from his chair before heading towards the outside deck. He really needed to get some fresh air. As he was heading towards the deck, he suddenly grunted in surprise as something ran into him. He didn't fall, but the person who ran into him did and hit the ground with a thunk.

"Eep!" A feminine voice yelped in surprise. "S-sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going..." Shirou looked down and raised an eyebrow as he observed the girl he had ran into. She wasn't particularly short, but she wasn't too tall either. Probably a little bit shorter than Sakura. She wore a black blouse along with a black waist clincher that was tied with red lacing. Her hair was dark red and seemed to get even darker at the tips.

But there was one thing that caught his attention. Her eyes. They were silver like his. Granted, his was gained after he did many years of taxing magic, but her's look like they were purely genetics. He blinked in surprise before he remembered that she had been apologizing to him.

"Ah... It's alright. I wasn't focusing either." Shirou said with a chuckle as he offered the girl a hand, who took it with a sheepish look. Noticing this, he chuckled. "Honesty, don't worry about it. It's no real problem."

The girl seemed to relax a little bit, but she was still quite tense. "That's good..." She paused for a moment as if she was thinking about something. "M-my name is Summer Rose."

"Not a very sociable person." Shirou thought as he studied her tense and nervous look. She probably wasn't used to talking with others and probably didn't have many friends. Of course, she looked like she was younger than him so that would make sense. He'd dealt with people like her before and knew that the best thing to do would be calm and gentle towards them. Acting loud and snarky tended to scare them away.

He flashed a warm smile. "My name is Shirou Emiya. It's a pleasure to meet you, Summer."

Summer blushed a little bit and looked down as she released his hand. "So you're a first year student too?"

Shirou chuckled. "Yeah. My... Guardian knew the headmaster so she was able to recommend me for Beacon. What about you?"

She seemed to gain a little bit more confidence and perked up a little bit. "I came from signal, actually. I met professor Ozpin several weeks ago on a whim. He invited me to attend his school after we... talked." She went back to looking nervous. "I-if it's not any problem, could we be... friends?"

Shirou stared at her for a moment as he inwardly gushed at how cute she was being and comparing it to a certain purple haired girl.

"Yup." He thought. "Definitely like Sakura." He reached out and offered his fist in a friendly manner. "Of course. I'd certainly love for you to be my first friend in Beacon." He said with a smile. If it was possible, Summer's smile seemed to brighten up the entire room. Her smile was unnaturally white. What the hell did she use to brush her teeth? She raised her hand and gave him a fist bump.

"Yay!" Summer celebrated with glee. "I didn't expect finding a friend to be so easy!"

Shirou gave a low chuckle. "My, my. Certainly happy, aren't you? I'd hazard to guess that you're not good with making friends, right?"

Summer pouted and kicked her feet. "Yeah... I don't tend to talk with other people much. I'm just..."

"Shy?" Shirou offered.

"Yeah." Summer admitted. "I... usually spend more time with weapons rather than people so my social skills aren't the best."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Weapons?"

"Yeah." Summer said with a nod. "I... Love making weapons and seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people! Except a lot cooler and exciting." She added with a grin as she eyed him up. "So... what about you? Where's your weapons at?"

He let out a small smile grace his lips. This girl oddly had a lot in common with him. He never had many people that he could actually call friends, and he felt more comfortable in his workshop where he spent hours upon hours modifying his noble phantasms.

"I actually don't have any weapons on me right now." Shirou said, making the girl's face fall in disappointment before he quickly continued on. "Although, I could summon one of them if you want." He offered, making the girl's grin come back with full force.

"Really? Can I see? Can I see? Can I see?" Summer begged with puppy dog eyes.

"alright, alright. Hold on." Shirou said as he activated his magic circuits. Immediately, kanshou and bakuya appeared in his hands, making summer go wide eyed as she examined the weapons.

"Woah..." Summer muttered in awe as she studied the weapons from multiple angles. "So cool! They're absolutely beautiful! What do they do?"

"Hm? Nothing special." Shirou said as he spun the swords casually in his hands. "They're just swords. Sure, they're beautiful and all, but they're just a normal pair of swords."

Summer frowned. "Really? They don't shoot bullets or anything like that?"

Shirou chuckled as he dispelled the blades and gave summer a small pat on the head. "Don't think that doesn't make it any less formidable than any other weapons. In the hands of an experienced user, it can be just as dangerous."

"I know that... But it'd be cool if they could do other things and stuff." Summer said before her eyes gleamed. "Oh yeah! Since you showed me your weapon, I'll show you mine!" She reached behind her and took out a small metal box that had been covered by her white cloak. Shirou's eyes widened when he saw it as his structural analysis discerned the ability of the weapon.

"Sword form please." Summer spoke. There was a beep and the box began changing shape, expanding and lengthening to form two separate shapes. The case had become two twin swords that was colored dark red and black, giving it a very formidable appearance. The swords also had a revolver cylinder in the middle of each with a small trigger beneath it. A small barrel was outfitted underneath the blade and gave it the ability to shoot while still in its sword form. Despite all this, however, shirou could tell that this was only one of the weapons forms.

"Amazing." Shirou noted as he eyed the beautiful weapons. "An exquisite weapon. But I'm guessing that it's only one form, right?" Summer's eyes widened as he said that.

"How did you know?"

Shirou shrugged. "I'm a lot like you, actually. Most of my free time goes to crafting swords. I spend so much time with weapons that I'm able to discern a weapons functions just by looking at it."

It was sort of a half truth. His orgin and alignment were both Sword, making his structural analysis ability easily able to tell the origin of the weapon and how it works. A useful ability that analyses the weapon and copies it in his inner world: Unlimited blade works, for later use. It wasn't an ability he got after spending abnormal time with weapons, but one he simply had all of his life after he was infused with Avalon for most of his life.

"Wow..." Summer muttered in awe. "You're able to discern the functions of **Crimson's Rebellion?** That's pretty cool!" She giggled. "And you're also a weapon junkie? It's like it was fate that we were meant to be friends!"

Geez, this girl really knew how to crank up the cuteness meter. Along with Sakura's shyness, she had Illya's bubbly personality to boot. Beneath all that, however, she seemed to be a pretty lonely person. He easily saw through her little happy shell and could tell that she wasn't showing her true side.

Normally, he didn't make many promises because he had a horrible track record on keeping them, but he found himself taking a silent oath to at least look after the girl who reminded him so much of his sister, friend, and himself. He wasn't sure if that last one was a good thing, though.

He nodded. "If you believe so." Summer nodded happily before there was a sound over the intercom and a hologram of a woman appeared around multiple terminals on the ship.

"hello and welcome to beacon. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future hunts and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and training to protect our world." The hologram announced like she was reading off of a script before she disappeared.

"She's very uptight." Summer said as she eyed the spot the hologram was with curiosity.

"She's probably one of the serious types." Shirou said as he leisurely put his hands behind his head. "Mom said that she graduated not too long ago. Apparently the headmaster thought her skills were high enough to immediately offer her a job as a teacher. Combat teacher, if what my guardian said is true."

"Really? Cool!" Summer gushed before she gasped. "Oh... Look!" She ran over to the balcony, leaving shirou behind for a couple of seconds as he blinked his eyes in confusion and followed her. She leaned over the railing of the ship and looked downwards at the city of Vale, which was glowing with activity as hundreds of people bustled about on their daily routines.

"Woah... Vale is really beautiful." Summer muttered in awe as she leaned dangerously over the railing.

Shirou couldn't agree more, but he really didn't care much. Cities like Vale were all over the place back in his old world. In fact, compared to his old world, it wasn't as large. Probably because not many people had been able to establish permanent places outside of kingdom protection because of the grimm.

He reached out and grabbed Summers cloak before pulling her away from the rail with a sigh. "Get back before you fall. It'd be bad if you fell and died before even setting foot in beacon."

Summer turned around and puffed her cheeks out at him. "I can take care of myself! It's not like I'd do something as petty as to fall!"

"Sure. Whatever you say." Shirou said with a teasing smirk, causing Summer to puff her cheeks out even more. "Don't give me that look. It doesn't work on me."

"Hmph." Summer huffed before turning away with an annoyed look on her face. Shirou sweat dropped at how she was acting, but simply took it in stride. He already knew how to deal with people like these. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet filled with lien.

"Hey. I'll treat you to a snack from the first shop we see when we land. Whatever you want. Deal?" Shirou asked as he waved the leather wallet around. Summer's head snapped back towards him faster than he could blink, causing him to wonder how she didn't get any whiplash.

"Really? Anything?" She asked with a grin.

"Yeah. Anything. Promise." Shirou said with a tired look.

"Deal!" Summer chirped. Shirou inwardly groaned and suddenly found himself wishing that the ship would take a little bit longer to land. He could already see himself broke on the first day of school because of a stupid promise that he made.

See, this is why he never made any promises. He learned that the hard way.

...stupid Alaya.

* * *

"Woah..." Summer muttered as she disembarked from the ship and stared at the massive castle in front of her, which will serve to be her new home for the next four years... if she were to pass that is. "I've only seen beacon from the pictures, but it's much more impressive up close!"

"Mhm." Shirou grunted in agreement as he stared as well. While he may not like to admit it, he had never seen such a huge place in all of earth. The clockwork tower didn't compare to this place in the slightest, and the castle that held the golden haired vampire wasn't as big as this place. To think it was simply just a school for training children how to wield dangerous weapons and kill equally dangerous creatures. "It's certainly a nice place for a school."

"Ooh!" Summer gushed as she pointed to one of the student's weapon. "That kid has an electrical halberd!" She pointed to another kid, who had a small box similar to her own that had a cannon insignia on it. "And She's got a portable artillery launcher!"

"They're just weapons, summer. Calm down." Shirou said with a sigh. While he did admit to have a fascination with weapons, Summer took it on an entirely different level. "You have your own. Aren't you happy with it?"

"Of course I am!" Summer said as she cradled her box in her hands. "I hand made it myself, after all, but it's fun to admire other peoples weapons."

"Instead of admiring other peoples weapons, you should be more focused on the task at hand." Shirou scolded as he pulled her white hood over her head.

"What task?" Summer asked with confusion as she dropped her hood back.

"The task on where should we be going." Shirou said casually. "I'm sure the first year initiates have to go somewhere. I'm sure that's what my guardian told me when she boasted about her glory days."

"Eh? but they didn't say anything about that!" Summer argued.

"Beacon is a combat school that's only accepting the best of the best." Shirou said with a deadpan look. "If we can't figure out where to go from here, It'll just show them that we don't deserve to be here."

Summer paused, finding logic in his explanation. "I see... Then where do you suggest we should go first?"

"How about the auditorium?" A gruff voice said from behind them. Summer spun around in the blink of an eye while Shirou just casually kept his composure and turned around slowly. In front of them was a young man with golden hair and blue eyes. He looked like he was in pristine condition, his entire body comparable to an olympic athlete. Scars marred several places on his arms, giving Shirou the impression that he probably got into a lot of school fights or ran into a lot of grimm.

On his wrists was a pair of golden gauntlets that covered his knuckles. A ring of shotgun shells circled underneath the outer armor, giving the gauntlets a secondary use as a shotgun for mid-range or extreme close ranges.

"Who... are you?" Summer asked with a frown as she observed him. The man shrugged and cocked his head cooly.

"Taiyang Xiao Long. I'm a new blood here, just like you." Taiyang said before he rubbed his hand with his hair with a look of discomfort. "And, uh, just call me Tai. Much easier to say." Summer grinned, apparently liking the idea.

"Alright then, Tai it is." She said with a grin. "I'm Summer. The tall guy is Shirou Emiya."

Shirou gave Tai a bro nod of greeting. "Nice to meet you."

"As well." Tai said with a return nod. Serious, and a seemingly seasoned warrior. Shirou wouldn't mind being partnered up with him. He seems like a dependable person to trust your back to. Of course, summer would be good too, despite her energetic tendencies.

"So how do you know where to go? You're just as new to this as we are, right?" Summer questioned.

"Most of the family on my mom's side went to beacon. She told me a few stories now and then so I could prepare for initiation." Tai said as he looked off towards the castle. "Though she never said specifically where, It's supposed to be somewhere in the middle of the academy."

"Then let's get going!" Summer quipped as she began skipping down the stone path towards the academy. Tai watched her leave with a raised eyebrow before giving Shirou a questioning look.

"You two related or something?"

Shirou shook his head. "Nope. I only met her on the way here in the airship. She and I have a fascination with weapons, so we hit it off pretty well." His eyes turned somber. "She doesn't seem very good at socializing, though. She's more accustomed with weapons rather than people."

Taiyang frowned before nodding in understanding. "Oh. I see. If that's the case, then I guess we can't let her out of our sights, right?"

"You've got that damn right. Hurry up and follow before we loose her." Shirou said with an annoyed scowl at the thought of Summer getting into trouble. He grabbed Tai by the collar and began pulling him along easily, much to his chagrin.

"H-hey! Not the collar! Ouch!" Tai complained as he struggled in shirou's grip.

For a moment, Shirou suddenly found himself remembering about his pass self and simply gripped harder in response. "Shut up and deal with it."

And thus, an unorthodox friendship had been formed that day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Im back with another chapter! Three day weekends are good break from the usual two. More free time for me, yay!**

 **Now to reply to some of your reviews:**

 **Dpss: I now that the aura isn't exactly like the third magic. The point I was trying to make was that the way they were able to manifest their soul, albeit in a really small manner, to protect themselves. I'm not trying to say that they are able to go around resurrecting people with Shirou's help and I wasn't trying to make it seem like what they were doing was exactly how the third magic was to work. Think of it like they were doing something that could connect with the third magic, but on a really, really, REALLY toned down level.**

 **I am also aware of your comment on the fact that hunter weapons shouldn't be compared to D and C-ranked noble phantasms and at the very least be compared to an E-ranked one. While I am not fully knowledgeable on the strength rating on Noble phantasms (Since the process for rating a noble Phantasm is quite vague and confusing even if I have been a fan for several years.) I will take your word and at least edit them to the lower E-ranked noble phantasms. Thank you for your input.**

 **With that said, onwards with the story!**

* * *

"I'd wish you'd stop acting so serious all the time. You'll age faster with that attitude." Taiyang muttered in annoyance as he rubbed his messed up collar.

"So I've been told." Shirou said sardonically. Despite his looks, he himself had lived for many, MANY, years. Not exactly lived, mind you, but employed as a counter guardian to wipe out many world ending threats that were associated with earth. Dead apostles and war being the most common for him. He couldn't remember how long it has been since he started acting as Alaya's dog. And, while he was initially alright with it at first, he soon became sour with his new job.

His first job? Slaughter everyone in a huge war in the middle east during 2056.

His second? Destroy an entire city along with its inhabitants because there were several magi there who were dangerously close to reaching the Root.

Needless to say, while he saved many lives like he wished, he took more lives than he ever thought possible. It was pointless for him to even tally up the dead even if he tried. In fact, he held more kills than that facet of Amaterasu. THAT said something about him.

"Why don't you relax more? It's only our first day at beacon. You won't get any ladies with that attitude. If you were like me, you'd have the ladies swarming over you." Tai said with a grin as he flexed his arms.

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Yes. Because that has been happening all the time since we got here. I'm surprised that we even got this far with all of these women chasing after you." he said sarcastically, causing Tai to scowl.

"Geez, dude. Way to rain on my parade. Do you enjoy doing stuff like this?"

"More than you'll ever know." Shirou said cryptically.

"Whatever." Tai snorted, annoyed at not getting anything out of the counter guardian. Truthfully, he didn't think he was anything impressive. So far, he hadn't showed anything impressive other than his snarky attitude whenever he was refuting Tai's poor choice of words. He didn't even have any weapons on him that he could see.

In fact, he never really went into the details of his past even after he told him all about the long line of hunters and huntresses that came from his family tree. When Shirou heard it, he didn't seem to be impressed or anything like that. He simply shrugged and nodded his head politely.

Almost as if he didn't find it anything worth bragging about.

He could respect that, but it didn't do anything to sate his curiosity.

"Stop thinking about me. I don't swing that way." Shirou suddenly spoke, causing Taiyang to stare at him with his mouth agape as he processed the question.

"W-what makes me think that I'm thinking about you?" He suddenly paused before his face became even redder. "And what the hell do you mean by 'don't swing that way'?"

Shirou stared back at him with an 'are you retarded?' look. "An ape could figure it out with the weird looks that you are giving me." He suddenly smirked. "And as for you second question, It's another way for saying that I'm not gay."

Tai's eyes bugged out when he heard it. "B-but I'm not gay either! Nope! Nu-uh!" He protested with his hands in front of him in an X.

Shirou shrugged. "That's questionable. Guessing from your gauntlets, you love to get up in peoples faces and stick your hands deep inside them before blowing them apart with your load. I'm personally not a fan, but hey, whatever floats your boat."

"When you say it like that it sounds gay!" Tai yelled in annoyance. He pointed at his gauntlets. "These babies are killing machines passed down from my family for generations! My grandfather used it to hold off a total of 50 grimm at once back in his novice days!"

"Cool. I killed 100 of them with my own weapon before I came here." Shirou said with a snarky tone, shooting down Tai's proud proclamation like a pro.

Tai's eyes widened before he laughed. "That's bull. You're bluffing."

"Believe what you will." Shirou said before the sounds of a crowd gathering reached his ears along with Summers excited voice.

"Guys! Hurry up! The crowds already gathering!" Summer called from in front of them with an excited wave as she stood behind a large amount of initiates who were gathering at the foot of a stage with a small microphone at the edge.

"Aw, man." Tai muttered as he stared at the microphone in annoyance. "I hate speeches. They always say the same thing every single time."

"Hmph." Shirou grunted as he gazed around the crowd and analyzed anyone who looked interesting to him. He knew for a fact that any of them could be his new teammates or partners for the rest of his time here. It would be in his best interest if he tried to find people who showed promise here. So far, none of them caught his eyes.

At least, until his eyes landed on a pair of shady people standing in the far corner of the room away from the rest of them.

It was a boy and girl about the same age as him with serious looks and an intimidating aura that made any of the people who were around them clear subconsciously, as if they were getting a message to leave the two of them alone. Without a doubt, Shirou could say that the two of them were definitely related.

The boy was slightly taller than his sister, but had a lazy looking expression. It was the look of someone who didn't know the definition loosing. Someone who came through all of his battles without a single loss to his record. In Shirou's personal experience, such ways would get the kid killed in a fight early on. If he could fix that, he had no doubt the kid could go far. He was wearing a grey top and pitch black pants along with a tattered red cape that clung behind him. What really drew his eye, however, was the kid's weapon.

A huge metal sword was holstered behind his waist. It didn't look like most swords he had seen. Calling it a great sword didn't seem appropriate for it, more like a heap of raw iron rather than a sword. Above the handle was an opening revealing several gears connected together like the inside of a grandfather clock. The way the weapon looked and how huge it was reminded him of berserker's axe sword. A weapon meant to kill in a single strike.

The girl had her brothers dark hair, but her's was longer and more unkempt. The way her hair was spiked and pitch black reminded him of a crow. She was wearing a shallow cut black dress with a red girdle belt and a pair of matching gauntlets. She wore a pair of thigh-length boots with red splatter patter decoration and a large sheath hanging by her waist.

Nothing but the handle was sticking out, but that didn't matter. As long as Shirou could see any part of the weapon, he could analyze it. Using structural analysis, he found out that the particular sword inside was an odachi. A type of sword that was used in Japan by Samurais during the Feudal Era. It was older than the Katana and the difference between them was notable. The requirements for a sword to be an odachi would be to at least be longer than 3 shaku long. To put it simply, 35.79 inches.

The scabbard had a rotary chamber that was color coded. Presumably representing each of the dust colored blades that resided there, allowing the sword to switch blades to better suit the situation. It even also had a trigger, allowing for it to shoot the blade out at high speeds. At first, he assumed she used it as a projectile weapon, but further analysis showed that it was meant to boost iado, a sword technique that involves unsheathing the sword in a quick slashing motion before re-sheathing.

Certainly impressive for a sword, but he'd seen so many swords that were more absurd than hers.

Like Sasaki Kojiro's blade. That thing was something he never could believe anyone could use. Seriously, a 5 shaku long blade must have taken a seriously long time to master. Even if you had a lot of free time on your hands.

Suddenly, as if sensing that he was watching them, the girl tilted her head in his direction and trained her orange eyes on him. Reacting normally, he tilted his head forward towards the stage and kept an impassive look on his face. He'd done this many times while stalking a target and had found it very useful when you wanted to be close to your target without rousing suspicion.

Looking around for a moment with narrowed eyes, she finally gave up with a shrug and went back to talking with her brother. Shirou internally winced at how the girl picked up on him, and made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

"Hello! Remnant to Shirou, are you there?" Summer asked as she waved a hand in front of his face, making him blink a bit in surprise before looking down at her.

"Yes, summer? What do you need?"

She suddenly gained a very shy look. "Well... I know we just met a few hours ago, but I want to know a little bit more about you. Since we might, you know, be spending the next four years of beacon together."

"I'm all for it as well." Tai said with a grin as he popped in on their conversation. "I told you a little about my past, so I demand that you tell us a little bit about yourself as compensation!"

Shirou stared at him in annoyance. "Seriously? Stop trying to get closer to me, Fister."

"Fister?!" Tai sputtered with a shocked look before he scowled. "Look- I dare you to call me that again."

"Or else what? You gonna fist me with your golden gauntlets and blow your load all over me?" Shirou taunted. The two of them floated towards each other with the intention of beating each other to the ground when Summer stepped between them.

"Hey! No fighting you two!" Summer said with a frown as she eyed the two of them and let out a sigh. "The both of you are way too violent."

"So I've been told." Shirou replied with a smirk.

"I get that a lot." Tai said a grunt. "It's a normal thing among us men. To settle our differences-"

"-We do a strength contest to determine who is superior. It's the duel that shows just who is the dominant one in the pack. While I may not have any pride, nor have any need for it, I need a workout." Shirou finished with an eye gleam. "Of course, now is hardly the time and place to do such a thing. We shall continue this later at a much more appropriate situation. It would be a shame if anyone were to, ah, get caught in the crossfire."

"Yes, you may have a point there." Tai said as he lowered his arms. "We can duke this out later, assuming that we pass into Beacon." Shirou nodded in agreement.

"Deal." He said before the screech of a microphone reached his ear and a middle aged voice resonated around the room.

"Testing. Testing. 1, 2, 3. This is Professor Ozpin, please bring your attention to me." Everyone redirected their attention to the stage and saw a handsome middle aged man standing by the microphone with a serious expression. He wore a black suit and pants with a long green scarf wrapped around his neck. In front of his eyes was a pair of shaded glasses that were tilted downwards to allow others to see his thin brown eyes. In his right hand was a fancy walking stick while his left hand, oddly enough, held a steaming cup of coffee.

When Shirou saw him, he knew that this man was far from normal.

Behind the man's casual look and laid backed demeanor, he was definitely leagues above anyone in this room. His cane also functioned as a weapon, and he could practically feel the amount of Grimm residue that had been taken by that very cane.

The man made him uneasy. He had no doubt that he could fight the man head on, but the man eerily reminded him too much like Zelretch. The same relaxed expression, old look, and years of experience and wisdom hidden beneath his exterior.

"Now that I have gotten your attention, I'll keep things brief." Ozpin said with a serious tone as his eyes scanned the crowd, making some of the kids rustle with nervousness. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge- to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." He gave a dramatic pause before continuing. "But I look among you and all I see is wasted potential, in need of purpose - direction."

The students looked at each other in confusion, some with annoyance at being called weak. Summer and Taiyang seem to be thinking upon what Ozpin said while Shirou simply raised his eyebrow and kept to himself. He remembered Hazel talking about Ozpin, saying that he was one of the most dependable people in all of Remnant. The man had so many secrets on so many people, but she said that many people trusted him to keep silent and help them with their problems. That was mostly the reason why he was the headmaster of the academy.

If only the clocktower had people like him.

"You assume knowledge will free you from this," Ozpin continued sternly. "But your time at Beacon will show you that knowledge can only get you so far." He stepped back and turned around, but not before finishing his speech.

"It is up to you to take the first step."

Nobody applauded as he walked off to the side. Everyone was simply frozen in shock. They had been expecting to hear the same repetitive boring speech again, but Ozpin certainly had a way of hitting people right in the feels.

Another person took to the stage, this time a woman. An oddly familiar looking face.

Summer let out a quiet gasp. "That's the hologram woman! Gahnda Goodlynch!"

Shirou sighed. "Glynda Goodwitch, Summer. Pay attention to detail if you ever want to succeed as a huntress." Shirou reprimanded with a light pat on her head, causing her to pout up at him at the small jab he gave her.

"Isn't she a little bit... young for a teacher?" Tai questioned as he stared at the woman. In truth, that thought was running across everyone's minds in the auditorium. While she certainly looked very mature, responsible, and had the pose and stature of a veteran warrior, she couldn't be that much older than any of them. 2 to 3 years at most.

Apparently realizing what was going on in everyones heads, she gave out a sigh. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. And yes, before anyone asks, I am a teacher here at Beacon academy."

"But you're way too young!" A random kid pointed out, earning a death glare in response.

"While I may be young, headmaster Ozpin found it very beneficial that I become a teacher here. If any of you are doubtful of my abilities, I will personally school you myself." Glynda said with a sharp gaze and hard tone, scaring most of the kids into silence.

Shirou could tell that she wasn't all talk either. Her weapon's history shows that she uses it in conjunction with her own Semblance: Telekinesis. Back in his world, Telekinesis was a very rare and powerful ability. In fact, most of them were so strong that most of their fellow magus' called them monsters. Albeit, not as much as those with access to true magic.

Plus... those eyes.

He shivered.

He knew them all too well. His teacher and longtime friend had the same kind, after all.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight." Glynda announced with her ever-present stern look. "Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are all dismissed."

The kids began filing out of the auditorium and immediately headed towards the ballroom that was conveniently just across the road from them. Summer, on the other hand, danced around in her spot with an excited look on her face.

"This is exciting! Aren't you guys excited? We're going to be spending our first day in beacon!" Summer squeaked with excitement.

"Whoa there, Summer." Tai said with a frown. "Take it easy. It's just a single day."

"He's right." Shirou said, although he had a small amused smile on his face. "Save it for after the initiation and when you pass. If you fail, it'll just be embarrassing."

Summer stopped her celebration and poked her fingers together in embarrassment. "Sorry... I'm just really excited about all this, you know? Beacon was kinda like my dream goal ever since I was younger. Being here is just overwhelming for me."

"It's overwhelming for all of us." Tai said with a shrug. "Don't think you're alone on that. Everyone here is already nervous and excited for tomorrow. Right, shirou?"

"They'd be fools not to." Shirou said as he eyed several of the cheerful kids. "Beacon only accepts the best of the best. Whatever initiation process they have is surely going to be on another different level than what we are used to." He gave summer a soft look. "It's okay to act carefree sometimes, but it's not okay to fool around in the field. Stupidity gets countless heroes and villains killed."

"You talk as if you've seen it happen." Summer pointed out, causing shirou to pause before he shrugged cryptically.

"It's just common sense." He said as he began walking past them towards the ball room. "Now, come on. All of us are going to need some sleep for tomorrow." He gave Summer a smirk. "Plus, it'll help you grow more."

"W-what?" Summer stuttered in surprise before she puffed her red cheeks out. "I'm not that short! You're just older than me!"

Tai rubbed his head. "Not to be a party pooper, Summer, but we're both not that much older. Plus, out of all the girls I've seen in this academy, you are close to being the shortest."

Summer's expression drooped. "Guess I should start drinking more milk..."

Tai just gave her a pat on the back. "Don't worry. You're probably just a late bloomer."

Summer's head hung even lower at that.

* * *

"This year is certainly going to be interesting." Ozpin said as he watched the students file out of the auditorium.

"You're always saying that." Glynda muttered with an annoyed look. Ozpin just chuckled, knowing that she was still pretty pissed with being called out as the youngest teacher at the academy. The rest of the professors were Ozpin's age, and Glynda felt like she had to makeup for that by being serious and professional all the time.

She was considered a prodigy at her years in Beacon, passing every single class with perfect scores. It was also well known throughout all the four kingdoms that she was the one to singlehandedly win the entire Vytal Festival tournament on her own.

He himself knew that her talents could make her a very successful hunter, but he also knew that they could be put to good use elsewhere and convinced her to work as a professor early after her graduation.

"I say that because it's true." Ozpin said as he watched the students. "New potential students come through those doors every year. And like a snowflake, not all of them are the same."

Glynda sighed. "I don't understand how you put up with us."

"I am a very patient man." Ozpin said with a small smile. "Oh, and by the way, Hazel sent us a potential prodigy our way."

"Hazel?" Glynda said with surprise at the mention of her former teacher before she narrowed her eyes. "What prodigy?"

"Well, that's what she says at least." Ozpin said with a sip of his coffee. "She says the kid she sent here is someone she adopted after finding him outside of her cafe without work."

Glynda gave an amused smile. "Adopting a random kid? Sounds just like Hazel. Whose the kid she sent?"

"A boy named Shirou." Ozpin said as he stared at his scroll. "She's acting as his mother, but she says he always looked at her like an older sister. From what she says about his combat ability, it is actually quite impressive."

"She taught him?" Glynda questioned, knowing that Hazel had been the combat teacher here before she let Glynda take over the job.

Ozpin shook his head. "Says here that she never gave him a single ounce of training. In fact, she never even knew he could fight before he kicked out several robbers out of the diner with ease."

"Pfft. That's it? She should know that's not enough of a reason to send him to Beacon of all places. Maybe one of the other schools, but certainly not beacon." Ozpin simply chuckled at her reaction.

"I know. And She knows that as well. Which is why she decided to test him herself." Ozpin said as he swiped a few times on his scroll. "Do you want to know what the results were?"

Glynda leaned towards the scroll curiously and Ozpin took that as a yes. He handed her the scroll and her eyes started going over the texts, widening as she got further and further down the report.

"A 1000 out of 1000 in arms mastership? Are you sure this is true?" Glynda asked with wide eyes. Ozpin simply nodded and took back the scroll.

"Hazel isn't one to lie. Especially, not to me." Ozpin said as he began organizing more of the report. "Any weapon she gave him was skillfully executed to the point where she thought that he could take on a full fledge hunter and survive."

"Any weapon?" Glynda asked with a frown. Arms mastership was graded on how skillful a person was on multiple types of weapons. Typically, there were some that were focused on one weapon and others who were mildly proficient in all of them. But getting a perfect score in all of them? As far as she knew, only less than 5 people in the history of huntsmen have only gotten it. This kid, shirou, would be the sixth if what Hazel was saying was true.

"Indeed." Ozpin said with a nod. "Of course, I will confirm it during the initiation process and see if what Hazel was saying was simply talk."

Glynda nodded, satisfied. "By the way, which initiation process are we going to be using? The mountain climbing? Battle Royale?"

"Hm..." Ozpin paused in consideration. "I shall use the Emerald Forest. It has been quite some time since I last used that place. Please go and make the necessary preparations for the test."

"Understood, sir." Glynda said with a small bow before she left with her scroll open, quickly contacting the rest of the teachers to assist her in getting the test started. Ozpin returned his attention back to Shirou's file, his eye hovering over the 1000/1000 arms mastership score.

"Emiya Shirou..." Ozpin said out loud, letting the name roll off the tongue. "let us see if you are what Hazel makes you out to believe."

He pocketed the scroll and left to go back to his private coffee maker. His cup was running out, and the cafeteria coffee didn't quite cut it for him.


	4. Chapter 4

"So what do you think the initiation is going to be like?" Summer asked Shirou as she munched on a bowl of cereal.

Shirou looked up from his scroll and shook his head. "My guardian only told me there was an initiation. She never specifically stated how the initiation was supposed to go." He paused for a moment. "She said it varies, though. It just depends on what the headmaster wants to do."

"Well, that's not helpful." Summer said with a frown before she smiled. "But... That makes it even more exciting! Not knowing what you're getting into is part of the thrill! Right?"

Shirou cracked a smile. "Hmph. Just make sure not to get too excited. Remember what I said? Stupidity gets more hunters than any other factor. For your sake, just drop your little bubbly personality a little bit."

Summer pouted. "But with the profession we're doing, shouldn't it be alright for one of us to be lively? I mean, it's not like the work we'd be doing is all fun and clean."

Shirou paused in thought of what she said. She did have a point. Hunters are essentially mercenaries who could dedicate themselves to any of the four kingdoms. No matter what they chose, all of them would be working less than respectable jobs. Having someone who boosted team morale was an important gift in itself and something he wished he had back at his own world.

Summer was a lively person, but she was still so innocent like him when he first started as a magus. That could certainly be a good thing depending on the situation, but there was one question that he really needed to ask.

"Then why do you strive to be a huntress? Why would you wish to dirty your hands with the stain of grimm, or perhaps in the future, other human beings?" He asked with a soft voice. Summer stared at him for a moment in surprise before she gave him a bright smile.

"Well, it's sort of embarrassing, really." Summer said with a small blush as she twiddled her thumbs. "My mother and father used to tell me stories about my ancestors whenever I went to sleep. They told me of all the sacrifices they made for good and the common people, and I guess I was sort of infatuated with them." She sighed. "I've always wanted to make an impact on the world, and hearing stories about my ancestors convinced me that being a huntress was the best way possible."

Shirou stared at her for a moment with a critical eye. "So... You wanted to be a huntress, simply because your parents always told you about it?"

Summer nodded. "Pretty much, yeah." She gave him a shy look. "I know it sounds lame, but that's the truth." She paused. "Plus, I've always wanted to help people."

"You do realize that grimm aren't the only dangerous things in this world, right?" Shirou said as he leaned back in his chair. "In the future, you may have to kill other humans as part of your jobs. Dust smugglers, terrorist organizations, criminals, all of them may be people who you'll be pointing your weapon at. Are you willing to kill another human to protect others?"

Summer glared at him. "I'm fully prepared to do so. I know what I was getting into when I decided to go to Beacon." She looked down at the ground. "It doesn't mean I have to like it, though."

Shirou's gaze softened. "Killing another person isn't something you should enjoy." He took a sip of coffee. "Believe me, it's not a pretty experience." He stared at her eyes and continued on in an even quieter voice. The look in her eyes obviously told him that she'd seen someone die before. "Where did you see it?"

Summer looked away. "Dust shop robbery." She admitted with a sad tone. "Guy came in with a type-32 pistol and demanded that the store clerk give him all of his lien and several pounds of dust crystals. I was hiding in the corner at the time, so the robber didn't really pay any attention to me. The clerk looked like he was going to go with the demand. He started putting dust crystals in the man's bag before he apparently thought that he could take the man by surprise."

Shirou remained silent, politely waiting for her to move on.

"It all happened so fast. The clerk tried to grab the gun, but the man seemed to have a little bit of combat training. He quickly pulled away and put a double tap into the man's face. After that, the man grabbed all that he could and quickly got out of there before taking off in a sleek black car." Her arm shook at the memory. "There was so much blood everywhere. Everyone was too shocked to even move. The way the man's face blew apart haunted me for most of my life, and I only managed to move past it a year ago." She gave him a small glare. "There. Happy?"

"Happy? Nope." Shirou said softly. "I have experienced death before, and I was sometimes the one who would pull the trigger when the time came. Nothing about that makes me happy at all." He leaned across the table and gently grasped Summer's hand with his own. "Just remember, you'll have to make some tough decisions in this line of work. When the time comes for you to do so, just act." He smirked. "You know, I was kind of worried that you weren't ready for such a job, but I guess I was wrong."

Summer giggled at him and stuck out her tongue in victory. "See? I told you I was strong! There's nothing to worry about!"

"Ha!" Shirou laughed as he leaned back, causing Summer's eyes to widen when she heard the sound come out of Shirou's throat.

"Are... you laughing?" Summer questioned as she watched him give her a sincere smile.

"What? Surprised?" Shirou asked with a mirth chuckle. "I admit, I haven't laughed like that in a long time. Perhaps you're starting to grow on me. Though, I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing."

"Let's go with good." Summer suggested with a grin at finally getting Shirou to open up more. She certainly liked this side of him more than his usual self where he was mostly snarky, quiet, and mostly scolded others. The vibe she got from him was someone who was used to fighting, and sometimes like an old man. She could never get a read on him. When he smiled and laughed like this, however, he seemed more like a regular teenager instead of... how he usually acts.

Indeed, he definitely looked much better like this. The way his eyes twinkled, and the way his mouth curved upwards was very nice looking.

Summer blinked before she blushed a crimson shade of red that almost matched her hair. What in dust's name was she thinking?

Shirou blinked a bit as he saw her red face and frowned. "Are you alright? You burning up or something?"

Summer coughed into her hands and shook her head. "Nope. Everything is fine. Just thinking about some things. That's all." Shirou frowned, but simply let it be.

Let it be known that the great Shirou Emiya had gotten smarter in many things, but figuring how women worked was not one of them. He was still oblivious to the desires of women and simply thought of it as nothing more than strange behavior.

"I'm not going to ask." Shirou muttered as he stood up and stretched. "Come on. We have to go towards the cliff for our initiation."

Summer nodded, before frowning as a thought hit her. "Where's Tai at? Wasn't he here eating with us a few minutes ago?"

"He went to go hit on the girls." Shirou said with a shrug as he pointed over to the wall where Taiyang was. He was leaning against it with one arm and striking up a conversation with two other girls. Judging from the girl's annoyed expression, she was definitely getting tired of him.

Summer sweat dropped. "Should we intervene? I mean... What if he gets injured before the test?"

"That's his own fault." Shirou said with a shake of his head. Suddenly, there was a crash and Taiyang found himself buried under the wreckage of a table with stars surrounding his head. Shirou and Summer sighed before heading over to retrieve their friend.

Luckily, they were able to get him out of there before several angry girls tried to maul him to death or possibly rip off his tool.

* * *

"Wow... We're really high up." Summer commented as she peered over the edge of the cliff and towards the forest below.

"A good day for some free falling." Tai said as he started stretching. He didn't know what the test was exactly, but he was pretty smart and already had a good idea on what they were going to be doing.

"Guess again." Shirou said as he pointed towards a bunch of clouds that were gathering over the forest. "Seems like it's going to rain."

The rest of the students eyed the clouds in the distance with worry as they murmured amongst themselves. Ozpin simply stood by the edge of the cliff with an amused look and another cup of hot coffee while Glynda stood next to him, scanning her scroll intently for final last minute preparations.

"Now, I'm sure that all of you are wondering about the selection of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given a teammate... today." Glynda said without looking up from her scroll. The students whispers turned to excitement before she resumed speaking.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years."

The whispers of excitement were soon replaced with the sounds of groaning.

"After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern ends of the forest. You'll find a set of ruins that each have a relic that you and your partner need to obtain. There will be a time limit, so you and your partner will be racing against the others to make it to the ruins. You are allowed to destroy anything in your paths whether it be Grimm or... other potential rivals." Ozpin announced with another sip of his coffee. "Of course, there's also another factor in play should you choose to accept it. I have attached a relic to the most powerful Grimm in the area. If you are able to retrieve it, you will receive a special bonus from the teacher. Be warned, however, that you may loose precious time doing so."

"You will be monitored during the exam, but the instructors shall not intervene. In the real world, you can't expect us to save you. When you have retrieved a relic, please report back to the cliffs." Glynda said as she inwardly enjoyed watching the surprised looks from several of the teens. What she said was a total lie, but it was necessary for all of them to take this test seriously. Besides, paperwork for dealing with dead students was a total bitch for any of them to do.

"A race?" Summer grinned. "Speed is my thing. If this is the test, there's no way I could loose!"

"Don't get cocky, Summer. You're still going to have to find a partner." Tai said before he grinned. "How about you and me?"

Summer nodded with excitement before she frowned and turned to Shirou. "What about you, Shirou?"

"No offense, but I'd like to meet some new people." Shirou said with a shrug before offering them a small smile. "Besides, I know you two would work well together."

Summer frowned, but nodded anyway. "Well... Alright. Just don't get yourself killed down there."

"Got it." Shirou said with a nod before he turned to Tai. "Make sure she doesn't go rushing straight into danger."

Tai shrugged. "Got it. I won't let her out of my sight."

"Oi... I can take care of myself." Summer muttered in annoyance.

"Now, we will give you a demonstration on how we're going to be starting this test off." Ozpin announced as he raised his cane and pointed it at Shirou. "Shirou, Please give a demonstration on how you're supposed to land."

Shirou blinked. How did Ozpin know his name? Then it hit him when he remembered that he had sent a picture along with his application to Beacon on Hazel's request. Guess the professor had been studying up on some of them. Impressive, since most of the clock tower teachers that he knew were too lazy to even bother memorizing their profiles.

Then he frowned when he processed the rest of Ozpin's request. "Excus-"

The slab of earth underneath his feet suddenly jerked up violently like a spring, launching him directly into the earth without any warning. Any normal person would have been screaming their head off in surprise, but this was normal compared to the other thing Shirou had to do in life. He summoned Kanshou and Bakura to his hands as he zoomed towards the ground. Taking a short glance behind him, he saw a few other initiates falling from behind him.

"Great. Better disappear quickly." Shirou muttered. Much as he'd like to meet new people, none of them really caught his eye. The two twins did, but he assumed that they would rather partner up with each other than with him. Not something he could fault them over.

He had two options he could do once he hit the ground. He could go to the hotspot where all the relics were at. Or, he could seek out this monster grimm with the bonus relic and kill it himself. Normally, he would choose the option with the higher chance of success, but this time he decided to go against it. He was really interested to see what this powerful grimm was.

He approached the tree line and braced himself for impact. Extending his foot, he smashed his way straight through the first tree, splitting it in half with speed and strength. Slowing himself down, he raised his swords and stuck it into one of the nearby trees and used his strength to carve his sword around the tree in a circle towards the ground. Placing his two feet on the ground, he dusted himself off and took a look at his surroundings.

"Let's see..." Shirou muttered to himself as he took a look around. "If I were a powerful Grimm, where would I be?" He began jogging at a casual pace towards the north. Ozpin said the Grimm was the most powerful one in the forest, so it had to be a really old one. What he was trying to figure out was what type of Grimm it was. Nevermore? Death Stalkers? Maybe some king Taijitu?

There were some explosions in the distance and he wisely chose to stay away from that location.

He kept jogging for several more minutes before he stopped as he felt the ground shake. He frowned for a moment as he heard the sound of something huge trampling through the forest. It wasn't a Death Stalker because those things weren't known for making this much noise. It wasn't a Nevermore either since they almost never touched the ground.

It didn't matter. Whatever it was, he'd kill it without a problem.

"Here we go." Shirou muttered as he jogged off in the general direction of the disturbance.

* * *

"Yippee!" Summer yelled in glee as she took out her case and activated her double sword form. The blade elongated and the cylinder formed at the middle of the weapon, connecting to a small stubby barrel that was beneath the blade. Short enough to not impede the blade from cutting with both sides. Of course, this would usually shorten the range quite a bit, but she designed it after a hand cannon, making up for shorter range.

As she fell towards the ground, she fired her guns in front of her multiple times, slowing down her fall with each shot. Once she slowed herself enough to safely tether herself to an object, she fell towards a sturdy looking tree branch. Using her swords, she stuck it into the branch, causing her to spin in a full circle before letting go and landing on the floor in a crouching position.

"No Grimm nearby. Good." Summer said with a sigh. She had been worried that they would have been attracted to that much noise, but there were other louder noises coming nearby from other initiates as they prepared to land.

Positive it was safe, she casually began reloading her lost bullets before a sound akin to a cannon sounded from above her. Looking up, she saw Tai punch his gauntlets into the air above him, shooting off a shotgun blast and sending him down towards the ground and landing in a crouched position, cracking the ground beneath him.

"Nice landing." Summer complimented with a small clap.

"Thanks." Tai said as he stood up and brushed his pants. "We in the clear?"

Summer nodded. "As far as I can tell, no one landed near us." Her face became thoughtful. "I wonder about Shirou, though. He flew really far."

"The guy is probably okay." Tai said as he looked at the crowds that were gathering above them. "We should probably hurry. It's highly likely that it's going to rain. Best we get an artifact and run back here before it does."

Summer nodded and flipped her white hood up. "Let's go." Tai nodded in agreement and the pair ran off to the north at a fast pace. Ozpin hadn't said how far the ruins were, but it didn't matter. As long as they continued running north they should see it sooner or later.

The two of them continued to run before the sounder of thunder boomed overhead, causing them to slow down a bit and look up as a few drops of rain fell on their skin.

"Great." Tai sighed. "I don't have a hood to cover my head."

"That's your fault." Summer said with a chuckle as she sank deeper into her hood. "Hoods are all the rage these days."

"I was from Vacuo." Tai scoffed. "It never rains there. And whenever it does, it's not that much." He clicked his tongue. "It'll take some time for me to get used to the weather here."

"It's honestly not that bad." Summer explained. "It's not as hot as Vacuo and much more mild." She gave him an amused look. "I'm guessing it's not hot enough for you here."

"Ugh. Yeah." Tai grumbled as he ducked under a tree branch. "I'm just so used to the desert. I know it must be mild temperature for you, but it's cold weather for me."

"Uh-huh." Summer said with a nod. "Just don't freeze up during a fight or get sick. I'm not a doctor." She joked with a smile, earning a jovial laugh from Tai.

"Got it." Tai said with a playful wink before he frowned. "Hey... Have you spotted any grimm?"

Summer paused. "No, I have not." She scanned her surroundings. "Strange. I know we've only been traveling for several minutes, but we should have encountered something already."

"Probably because they're being attracted to something else." A voice spoke from behind them. Reacting on hardened battle instincts, the pair spun around with their weapons raised. Summer with her swords and Tai with his gauntlets. Standing behind them was a black haired boy and girl, both clearly twins and both equally dangerous.

Tai and Summer exchanged subtle glances before Tai decided to speak the question on both of their minds. "Who are you two?"

The girl raised her hand in greeting. "Name's Raven Branwen." She cocked her head towards the boy. "He's my brother, Qrow."

"Sup." Qrow said in greeting before he grabbed a flask out of his pocket and began taking gulps from the contents while Summer and Tai just stared in confusion. Seeing this, Raven sighed.

"Don't mind him. He drinks a lot wherever he goes. On the field or off the field." Raven explained, getting incredulous looks from the onlookers.

"You let him drink alcohol?" Summer questioned with a frown.

"Dust, no!" Raven said with a horrified tone. "He's addicted to red fruit punch. Started when he was 10 and couldn't shake the habit."

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it." Qrow said with a frown as he pulled the flask away, showing off the fruit punch stains around his mouth.

"That's cool and all," Tai began with a frown. "but why are you stopping to talk to us? Aren't we all supposed to be racing for some relics?"

"Well, that's true." Raven admitted. "But as far as I know, no one has taken one yet. Most of the other initiates can't even tell where north is. Most of them had either gotten lost or are stumbling in the wrong direction."

"But why are you here?" Tai pressed with a slightly annoyed expression. This time, it was Qrow that spoke up.

"Well, we thought we'd offer to work with you." Qrow began with a relaxed grin. "You do know that all teams in Beacon are paired up with four people, right? Well, me and sis thought it would be in our best interest to be paired up with the most capable initiates."

"We were going to ask that Shirou person, but he vanished quite quickly." Raven said as she frowned. "It's unnatural how he was able to vanish so stealthily. Usually people would leave a small calling card, but I didn't see anything." Tai and Summer both gave an exasperated sigh.

"The bastard never really talked much about himself." Tai said with a shrug.

"Even after we tried to coax it out of him." Summer muttered with an annoyed look.

"So what do you two say?" Qrow asked as he shouldered his blade. "While I wasn't really too keen on this idea, my sister wasn't going to give me a say in the matter."

"That's because you always go against whatever I say." Raven scoffed with an annoyed look.

Tai and Summer exchanged another quick glance and both quickly came to a silent agreement. While it certainly would have been easy to get a relic for themselves, it would be easier with the twins on their side. Besides the fact that the two of them had a weird relationship, they both would most likely work well together

Plus, the two of them were actually pretty fearsome looking. If the two of them combined like they said they would, they could potentially be the strongest team to ever graduate from beacon. And if what Raven said was true, the others were pretty much incompetent anyway.

A no brainer.

"We accept!" Summer chirped happily.

"Nothing bad could come out of this, so what the hell?" Tai shrugged as he lowered his gauntlets, causing the Branwen siblings to grin.

"Great!" Qrow said with a clap of his hands. "Now that that's settled, let's go and find us some relics!"

"It shouldn't be much farther." Raven said with a small smile before she frowned and her hand drifted to her sword. "Do you hear that?"

The four of them paused in sudden alert at Raven's word. At first, there wasn't any sound that could be called a suspicious noise. After several seconds, however, the sound of wings flapping and a bird screeching reached their ears.

 **SQUAAAAWWWK!**

A massive Nevermore shot out of the trees and hovered above them. It's red eye searched around like a laser beam before it finally focused in on them and glowed bright red. It squawked again and billowed its dark wings, creating a massive gust that was able to bend the trees around them slightly.

"Oh dust." Tai cursed as he eyed the Grimm.

"That thing is huge." Qrow muttered as he prepared to draw his sword.

"That's not an ordinary nevermore." Raven pointed out as she took a slow step back. "Slowly move back. Once we see an opening, run for it."

Unfortunately, the bird seemed absolutely set off by Raven's slight motion. It craned its neck and tucked in its wings. An un-mistakable sign that it was getting ready to dive bomb.

Luckily, summer was the first one to react. "Run!"

The four of them quickly turned and ran off. The nevermore blinked in surprise before screeching and flying after them in hot pursuit.


	5. Chapter 5

Shirou mentally cursed himself for being so stupid. If he hadn't drawn Gae Bolg none of this would have been happening now.

He had stealthily searched the forest in the direction where the sounds were coming from. The small rhythm of shaking earth told him that the Grimm he was tracking right now was a large one. Only one, but certainly something he shouldn't underestimate.

When he finally manage to catch up to the Grimm, he suddenly froze in surprise at the sight before him.

It was a huge dark elephant with the traditional white grimm face over its snout. Two giant tusks that were larger than him sprouted out from its face and gleamed white with a hint of red coating it. Presumably the remains of the victims it killed.

The hunters classified this type of Grimm as a Goliath. They speculated that they were an evolution of Grimm that occured hundreds of years ago from a Beowolf. Whatever the case was, it came to be deemed as one of the most dangerous grimm that could be encountered in the field. It's sheer size and tenacity has yet to be trumped by any other grimm.

Unlike most of the other grimm that have only begun walking Remnant recently, the goliath has been known to be one of the more smarter ones. Since most of them have lived far longer than any other of their species, most of them have managed to gain a sense of understanding against hunters after surviving many battles. Ordinary run of the mill tactics wouldn't work against it.

He had skirted quietly behind it, careful not to catch its attention. He had almost been caught several times, but his hundreds of years as a counter guardian kept him under the radar.

His instincts were also telling him that he should strike it fast and hard. Take it out quickly before it could figure out what was going on and launch a counter attack.

He considered using Caladbolg in its original sword form to take it out, but he never really liked using it like that. Celtic mythology told of it as a great sword, but it was more of a large drill that was meant for landscape destruction rather than a sword. That was part of the reason why he modified it into an arrow in the first place.

No. Caladbolg wouldn't do. He would have to use another type of weapon. He cycled through the best weapons to use in a situation like this and grinned when his thoughts landed on a familiar eight foot red spear. The spear that he knew personally all too well.

Gae Bolg. The main weapon of Ireland's child of light, Cu Chulainn. A monster slaying spear that was formed out of the bones of a monstrous sea demon. The Goliath may have a tougher defense than the regular grimm, but Gae bolg would slice and pierce through it without problem thanks to its monster slaying aspect.

He held out his hand and Gae bolg appeared in all of its bloody glory, glistening like fresh blood. Ironic since it was a weapon that made it impossible to heal any wounds as long as the spear remained anchored to the world.

Without pausing to admire his handiwork he rushed in with the spear. His speed, while close to the level of the hound, was not quite as fast. Still, he was a heroic spirit. Men and women who had managed to break free from their mortal restraints and become an existence above regular humans. His speed was faster than anything a regular mortal could produce. Even if he was moving at 10%.

Which was why he wasn't expecting for his spear to clang off of the monster's tusk and only score a grazing blow across the leg.

The monster had reacted with surprising speed for such a large creature, spinning around in place quick enough to defend. Shirou tilted his head in curiosity as he eyed the growling beast and gave a grunt of annoyance at the shallow wound he managed to inflict.

Cutting a Grimm like this wasn't an amateur feat by any means. However, shirou wasn't an amateur. He had underestimated such a large grimm and was stacking the odds against him.

Granted, he didn't care. If the Goliath was traveling in a pack he would have simply gone a little more serious and casually decimate all of them with a simple spear throw.

However, he wanted to test how strong the Goliath really was. Or 'toying with you mongrels' as Gilgamesh would put it.

While the Goliath had managed to deflect the spear strike, its left tusk had been completely severed into a stub and was lying several feet away from Shirou's legs. The Goliath groaned and pawed the ground with its feet. It had gotten the picture. It would die if it ran and it would die if it attacked. Even if it did manage to kill him it knew that another hunter would take its place.

It was at a deadlock and Shirou wasn't going to give it the option for mercy. Taking a stance with the spear point dipped towards the ground, he activated the certain kill technique.

"Gae Bolg!" Shirou declared as he channeled a massive amount of killing intent into the spear and thrust it downwards at the ground.

Spear swirled bright red with killing intent as its name was called. The spear may have been created as nothing more than an extremely powerful spear, but it held a special technique that was made by the hound of Ireland to suit his own fighting style. To all those around him, it would have been perceived as a certain kill technique that strikes the opponent's heart without fail and ruin it with the force of a thousand thorns.

It freezes all of the surrounding mana in the air and reverses the rules of 'Cause and Effect", to make it so that the cause of the 'lance being thrust' comes from the action of the 'heart being pierced' by it. It determines the target's fate simply through its use, an always fatal move that pierces the targets heart with one thrust.

The calling out of its name is simply a formality, as the lance has already pierced the opponents heart before the thrust has even started. The "Result" of "The heart being pierced" is created after the spear is thrust, while the "Cause" that "The lance has pierced the heart" is generated later.

It doesn't even have to be stabbed in the targets direction for it to take effect. The spear will reverse casuality to correct the error without fail. Even when it is stabbed towards the ground, it will shoot upwards towards the heart without growing, bending, or any move or part on the user. If he were to throw it, it'll still reach the target without fail. To any spectators, it would look as if the action was completely normal because the spear changes the means to match the result. A concept that was a step below the authority of gods.

It was Shirou's favorite weapon of choice when he was dealing with dead apostles of high defense. The spear delivers damage that is equal to the targets own, so the wound would be fatal no matter the opponent once they were struck. Even the true ancestor princess at her full power would be killed by such a powerful concept.

The best way to stop such an attack was to not be in the range when it happened. Here, however, Shirou didn't have to worry about that.

The spear had changed directions and had stabbed the beast straight through the bottom right side of its face, piercing its heart and spilling a strange black liquid that leaked all over the ground and cause the nearby grass to wither and die.

The Goliath roared in agony before pitching forward as its heart stopped working. Shirou casually stepped to the side and let the beast fall on its snout and dissolve into black particles. After a moment, the remains dissolved, leaving behind a small brown box on the floor with a small padlock on it.

"Hmph. What the hell was Zelretch thinking sending me to this world? These monsters may be strong, but I can deal with them easily." Shirou muttered in annoyance as he kicked the lock open easily and opened the chest. Inside was a golden pawn piece. Fitting, since huntsmen were perhaps the first line of defense against the grimm. Taking it and putting it safely in his pocket, he began to stand up before an old voice spoke up from behind him.

"Because you haven't seen the bigger picture."

Shirou's trained instincts took over as he traced three combat knives between his fingers and threw them with alarming accuracy at the new arrival. The sound of knives hitting wood were the only thing that reached his ears, however, as they had missed their targets.

"Several years and you still haven't changed. I must certainly say that out of all of my playthings you are certainly the most interesting."

The shadows in the corner of the struck tree began massing and taking shape into a familiar grandpa vampire with his trademark grin. Flipping his walking stick in his hands, he began to prod at the three embedded knives. "nice reflexes, though."

"Whatever, old man." Shirou said as he placed his hands in his pocket. "What are you doing here? And why do you appear now?"

"I've been busy." Zelretch said with a shrug as he casually swung his cane around. "I have other dimensions to visit, after all. Business never gives me a chance to rest."

"You mean messing around." Shirou said with a sigh. "Now spill it. You being here is bad news in itself so hurry up and tell me why you're here."

"Oh, just to answer your question and drop off a little surprise." Zelretch said with a grin, causing Shirou to tense up at the mention of a surprise. "Oh, don't be like that. I promise that this surprise won't be bad at all. In fact, you might even thank me afterwards."

"So you say." Shirou grumbled with a shake of his head, although the prospect of a gift made him curious. "What's the surprise you brought me?"

"An excellent question, my dear boy!" Zelretch said with a grin, making Shirou glare at him in annoyance. "Tell me, have you ever researched into the concept of dust?"

Shirou blinked, surprised at the seemingly random question. "You mean the natural resource that runs the entire world? Yes, I know a little bit about it."

"Well, you obviously do know what the books tell you. But you're only scratching the surface." Zelretch said with a grin as he opened his right arm and revealed a fire dust crystal. "This is dust in its crystalized form, as you already know. Or at least, what you have been led to believe."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"What I'm talking about is that you've gotten a small bit of the concept wrong!" Zelretch said with a gleam in his eyes as he waved the crystal around. "This, my dear boy, is mana that has accumulated and crystalized after several years below ground."

"What?" Shirou said with surprise as he eyed the crystal. "How is that even possible? I thought you said that we weren't on Gaia anymore!"

"That is true." Zelretch said with a nod. "But this planet seemed to have once had a collective will that is similar to your world's Gaia. The energy that the humans named 'dust' is actually condensed mana that the earth created. The amount of mana the planet creates is enough to compare it to the age of the gods. Good years for hero making if I do say so myself." He gazed at the place where the grimm rotted with distaste. "Unfortunately, the planet has already died out from human activity. In its death, it created the grimm as a sort of suicide attempt. Fitting since the hunters called it 'Nature's Wrath.'"

"So what about the mana, then?" Shirou asked as he eyed the crystal. "Eventually, the amount of mana is going to run out. What will happen then?"

Zelretch grinned. "Well, you don't have to worry about that. You see, the planet, while dead, is still producing mana as we speak." He scratched his head. "Well, not really. You see, the grimm are also made up of mana. Of course, no one knows that since nobody has been able to study a specimen since they die in captivity. You see how they disperse after you kill them, right? That's them returning to the earth and becoming crystals. And, while also dead, the world is constantly making mana. Albeit, at a smaller level compared to when it was alive."

"How do you know all of this?" Shirou questioned.

"I came here on vacation once." Zelretch said with a shrug before his expression hardened. "As for what you are doing here, I have already told you. Evil is stirring."

Shirou deadpanned. "It always is."

"I know!" Zelretch said with a sigh. "You know that I'm the operator of worlds, correct? I have already seen this worlds future and have seen how it ends. Unfortunately, this world has a lot of interesting people that I have taken a liking to."

"So... you want me to take care of the problem, correct?" Shirou finished with a face palm. "Remind me why you can't do it yourself?"

"I'm getting old." Zelretch said as he cracked his back.

"Well, could you at least tell me what I'm dealing with?" Shirou prompted, hoping to at least know a little bit about what he might have to deal with in the future.

"You'll know when the time comes." Zelretch said with a grin, causing Shirou to groan in annoyance. "And that brings me to the topic of my gift. I had a feeling that something like this would be a little bit too big for you so I brought some backup." He took out a piece a paper from his many pockets and began handed it to Shirou. "Here. This will lead you to my gift."

Shirou looked at the paper and saw an address at the bottom to a building in Vale. He grunted and took a swig from a water bottle in his shirt. He was getting way too thirsty for this. "What do I do when I get there?"

Zelretch chuckled. "That's easy. You're going to summon your own servant!"

Shiro spat out his water in surprise. "You want me to summon my own servant?!"

Zelretch frowned. "If your worried about screwing up the ritual. Don't. I sent someone there to oversee it and make sure you don't accidentally kill yourself doing it."

"Who did you send?" Shirou asked.

"Oh... Someone you know quite well. At least, the one who made the biggest impact." Zelretch said with a grin, causing Shirou to pause for a moment before his eyes widened. "Good. You figured it out. At least you get it. By the way..." He pointed over Shirou's shoulder towards something in the distance. "Someones in trouble."

"huh?" Shirou turned around and saw what Zelretch was pointing at. Circling the sky was a giant nevermore that seemed to be focused on something at the ground. It began descending before several small explosions went off in front of it. Causing the grimm to screech before retreating back into the sky.

"You'd better hurry and save them. Wouldn't do to leave them hanging." Zelretch said with a chuckle before he snapped his fingers and began folding up like a pop up photo. "And remember, this evil won't take place for a while, but you must be ready. Other forms of evil still walk this strange world. And also, don't forget to be excited when you roll the gacha!" And with that warning, the wizard marshal disappeared with a *pop* and leaving Shirou behind.

Shirou stared at the spot for several seconds before sighing and shaking his head. "Damn wizard. He could just tell me what the problem is but no..! He needs to make things hard for me." He turned his attention back to the nevermore in the distance. "Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. Might as well turn to a problem that I can fix."

* * *

"Would this thing just leave us alone?" Summer complained as she shot another round into the grimm and kept it at bay. They had managed to find the ruins and swipe four relics for all of them, but they were now currently running for their lives. No matter how many twists and evasion tactics they tried the nevermore was always able to find them.

"It's certainly tenacious." Qrow acknowledged as he switched his sword to shotgun mode and took another shot. "It's an adult nevermore after all so it must have adapted to hunters after several battles."

"If it would just move a little bit slower I could slice through it with enough force." Raven growled in annoyance as she watched the bird circle around. "Unfortunately, I don't have any long ranged weapons and my brothers gun form isn't powerful enough at that distance." She turned to Summer. "Does your weapon have any powerful long-range forms?"

Summer shook her head. "The most powerful form it has in long range is its sniper rifle form, but I forgot to re-stock on sniper rifle cartridges and ammo before I came here. My mistake."

Everyone face palmed at that while Summer simply rubbed her head sheepishly.

"Well, that's alright." Tai said with a small smile. "All we have to do is get back to the cliff. Just keep running and don't trip over anything."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Raven said sarcastically. "Unfortunately, you are right. None of us have any means to deal with the bird right now."

"If only a flying missile could take it out." Qrow said with a sigh. "But I guess that'd be too much to... ask..." He trailed off as he began slowing down with his eyes wide.

"What in dust are you doing, Qrow?" Raven hissed as she stared at his expression with a small amount of worry. It took a lot for him to get shell shocked, so what was it?

"Look!" Tai yelled as he pointed towards the sky. Raven and Summer followed his finger and widened their eyes in surprise as they saw a fast moving object flying through the air at high speeds. It had come from the deeper parts of the forest and was making a screeching noise as it flew.

"Is it a missile?" Qrow asked as he watched the grimm squawk in surprise as it noticed the oncoming projectile.

"I don't thin missiles trail rainbows." Summer pointed out as she stared at the entrancing sight before her.

Indeed, the missile was trailing a cone of light around it as it flew, creating a swirling rainbow of death that reminded all of them out of something from one of those weird anime shows with the magical girls and junk.

"The nevermore sees it." Tai said as he watched the bird flap its wings and begin to fly out of the projectiles path. It gave a triumphant squawk as it managed to push itself out of the projectiles path, letting it fly past it.

The triumph suddenly turned into a shriek of pain as the Grimm was ripped to shreds by the projectiles after shock.

The projectile had been moving and curling at such high speeds that it was twisting space. The Grimm, being in the area of twisted space, was now being painfully pulled apart as space gnawed on its existence.

The projectile continued on before it disappeared into the clouds, ripping them apart and creating a funnel before the sky exploded into a sea of rainbow colored light, creating a scene that resembled the lights of the North Pole.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...That was awesome!" Summer cried out with a bright expression. "Did you see how powerful that projectile was? It was twisting space!"

"And farting out rainbows." Qrow pointed out, although he actually thought that part was the coolest.

Raven shook her head. While she was surprised of such a sight, they had a test to finish. They could thank whoever that was later.

"Come on." Raven said, pulling everyone out of their shock. "Let's hurry. I don't want to get cornered again."

"Yeah." Tai nodded in agreement. "Let's go guys, we're not sure if the guy would be willing to help us again."

The group nodded before they headed back towards the cliff with a slight hurry in their step.

* * *

"Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen." Ozpin announced their names as they stood before him on the stage. "The four of you have gathered the golden knight pieces. Henceforth, the four of you will now be known as Team STRQ!"

Cheers and applause rose from the crowd, causing the the four of them to straighten up their backs in pride.

"And your designated team leader will be... Summer Rose!"

Summer blinked in surprise at the declaration while her newly declared teammates smiled warmly at her. Ozpin himself seemed to find her sense of astonishment amusing and gave her a smile of his own.

"Congratulations, young lady." He said with a wink. Taking it as their cue to leave, the four of them left the stage with huge grins on their faces. As ozpin called up the next team, the four of them stopped as a voice reached their ears.

"Congrats."

"Shirou!" Summer turned around with a grin as she saw the familiar white haired teen leaning against one of the pillars with a casual look.

"Glad to see you're not dead." Shirou said with a small smile. "Guess that means that Tai did his job."

"Damn right I did!" Tai said proudly with a puff of his cheeks. "What about you? How did you do during the test?"

Shirou shrugged and held out the golden pawn peace which he had taken from the Goliath. "I got the special piece ozpin told us about. Took me a while to find it, though."

"Impressive." Raven said, bringing shirou's eyes to her. "Sorry. Names Raven. This is my brother, Qrow. The two of us were scouting you earlier and thought you'd be a good person to join up with, but you disappeared too quickly before we could find you."

"Shirou emiya." Shirou introduced with a curt nod. "Sorry about that. I'm used to working solo so I didn't really see any reason to stick around."

Qrow shrugged. "Can't blame you there."

"So what is Ozpin going to be doing with you?" Summer asked with a small frown. "If you don't have a teammate who are you going to be teamed up with?"

"Don't know." Shirou said without worry. "Ozpin wanted to talk to me privately so I guess he wanted to discuss that."

"A private one on one conversation with Ozpin?" Qrow echoed with a frow, exchanging a glance with Raven. "You'd better watch out. The man is a little bit..."

"Odd?" Raven offered.

"Deductive." Qrow decided.

"Well, they don't call him the headmaster for nothing." Tai said with a chuckle.

"Indeed, Mr. Xiao Long."

Everyone spun around in surprise while Shirou just casually turned around like he had already been expecting Ozpin to be there with his coffee mug and cane.

He fixed Shirou with a relaxed look. "Mr. Emiya. Please, come with me." With that, the professor walked off without giving Shirou a chance to respond.

"Well. See you guys later." Shirou said with a sigh as he jogged after the professor, leaving the newly formed Team STRQ Behind.

"He seems like a nice guy." Raven said with a shrug.

"He's really not." Tai muttered, still annoyed at shirou for being called gay.

"You think he knows anything about that farting rainbow missle that saved us?" Qrow questioned.

"Who knows?" Summer answered with a shrug. "He's a really mysterious guy."

That was something they could all agree on. It would have to do for now untill they could pry more information from him.

* * *

"What is it that you want to talk to me about, professor?" Shirou asked as he walked besides Ozpin in the less populated area of academy.

"Your place in my academy, Shirou." Ozpin said as he sipped on his coffee. "I've been observing you ever since you entered the forest and I must say that your skill is certainly stupendous. The way you handled the Goliath was faster than most hunters could manage. Which brings up the question..." He gave shirou a critical eye. "...Who are you?"

Shirou briefly paused, wondering if he saw zelretch or caladabolg, but decided he didn't. The old man was always careful in making sure that no one dropped in on them without his permission. Taking a slow breath, he responded normally. "Just a normal kid. Of course, I've received training before."

"Training?" Ozpin said with raised eyebrows. "I'm sure hazel never told us about her training you. Prey tell then, who trained you? And to such a degree that you are able wield one of the most dangerous weapons conceived by man?"

"My dad." Shirou lied with a straight face. "We parted ways a long time ago. I keep in touch with him now and then, but he's mostly busy. He taught me most of the things I know. Espionage, hand to hand, firearms, etc."

"So he is a hunter?" Ozpin pressed on with an intriguing look.

"More like a mercenary." Shirou admitted. Kiritsugu had been one of the most dangerous assassins to walk the earth, scaring even the Magus association with his unorthodox use of modern weaponry to kill magi.

His dad never taught him how to make explosives or Shoot a gun, but he did teach him many survival skills to help him out in the wilderness. His skills in the use of weaponry would come later when he was taught kendo by his self-proclaimed older sister, Taiga.

"A mercenary." Ozpin echoed before shaking his head. "I see. I hope I get the chance to meet him in the future. For now, let's move on to the topic of your stay in beacon."

He took another swig of coffee, making shirou wonder if this guy was way too dependent on coffee to keep his motor running.

"Since you have received the golden pawn piece from the Goliath, I was planning to let you pick your own teammates." Ozpin admitted. "Although, it seems that you tend to work better on your own rather than with others."

"Not true, per se." Shirou said with a shrug. "I don't mind working with a team, but the other candidates aren't to my liking other than Team STRQ."

Ozpin sighed. "Understandable. But things may change in the future. Many students could change in a year."

"True, but not right now." Shirou said.

"Then it seems that my only option for you is to be a lone wolf squad." Ozpin said with a small smile. "Not many of these are issued out, but I feel like I can make an exception for you. I don't know why, but call it a teachers intuition."

Shirou blinked, slightly surprised the headmaster would go through with it. Then again, Hazel said the headmaster was someone who knew the correct way to get the maximum amount of effort out of students. Nevertheless, he found this option to be perfect.

"Thank you, sir." Shirou said with a small bow.

Ozpin just waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Of course, when the time comes for you to partake in trial missions, I will assign you to partner work with another team to be safe."

"Preferably Team STRQ." Shirou said immediately, causing ozpin to chuckle.

"Yes, preferably with Team STRQ whenever they are available."

Shirou nodded and began walking quietly away. Nothing more needed to be said so he didn't need to stay here. Right now, he needed to head over to the nearest airship for vale and find the address Zelretch told him to find.

"Shirou."

Shirou paused in his tracks. "Yes, sir?"

"If you have anything you want to talk about... I'm always available." Ozpin said as he began walking away, leaving shirou standing there with a troubled expression.

"Does he know?" Shirou thought to himself before shaking his head. "No. He suspects, but he doesn't know." He chuckled. "At least he's more believable than those teachers down at the clock tower."

Sighing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the slip of white paper with the address.

"Now... Time to see where you are at."

* * *

Turns out that the address was near a series of abandoned buildings near the docks. After landing and talking to a few people for the directions, he had finally managed to find the place.

"Of course Zelretch would choose the most out of the way spot for a summoning." Shirou muttered as he passed through nearby shipping crates. "Now... Zeretch said I would be meeting someone here."

"That would be me." A voice spoke, causing shirou to raise his guard a bit before relaxing once he realized who it was.

"You know, I had a feeling it was you but I wasn't really sure until now." Shirou admitted as he heard the sound of footsteps from behind him. Casually spinning on his feet, he saw a figure standing before him.

The figure was a male, standing just a little bit taller than him. He was wearing what looked to be a special type of combat suit that was made from the same sources that his own armor was made from. Wrapped around his neck was a red scarf and a mesh sleeve that covered his left shoulder.

Around his waist was a utility belt that had a small pistol and a holster containing several combat knives.

What really caught his attention, however, was the man's face. It eerily resembled him with tan skin and white hair. His eyes had the hardened expression of a soldier with the only difference being that his were brown rather than his own grey.

Despite his stoic look, the man let out a small smile that Shirou had not seen for many years. Not since he was a little kid.

"Hi, dad." Shirou choked out as he laid his eyes on his adoptive father.

"Son." Kiritsugu nodded with equally filled emotion. "To think that you would have come a counter guardian. I guess Its really my fault."

"Well... That's in the past." Shirou said as he fidgeted with his collar. "I wasn't expecting you to be a counter guardian as well, but I guess it was to be expected."

kiritsugu chuckled. "Yes. Although, I did get summoned by a peculiar master for a little while so I guess I can say that my time as a counter guardian wasn't as bad as yours."

"Huh, me as well." Shirou said as he fondly remembered Rin and shook his head. "So I guess zelretch must have pulled you out from Alaya like he did with me, right?"

"Correct." Kiritsugu nodded. "He pulled me in a few weeks ago and told me all about how you've been living here for the past few years." He shrugged. "I wasn't worried. I had a feeling you would be okay even if you didn't have the amount of magical energy us counter guardians have."

Counter guardians were closer to elemental and acted as defense mechanisms for humanity. In truth, each counter guardian is equivalent to 1,000,000,000,000 units of mana, but they were only deployed with the amount that Alaya deemed neccessary to destroy a threat.

For some reason, zelretch had managed to allow them to retain that amount of energy. How he did it was beyond him, but Zelretch was essentially like a writer in a story. He could do whatever the hell he wanted.

"Glad to see you have so much confidence in me." Shirou said with a small chuckle. "So wheres the summoning circle? I'm quite anxious to see what servant I get."

Kiritsugu's face soured. "The dreaded Gacha. Spewer of black keys. What a powerful tool." He shook his head. "Follow me. I've already set up the summoning circle in one of the abandoned store houses. I was going to summon a servant before you got here, but I decided to wait. You know, some father son bonding time."

"I'm not 13 anymore, dad." Shirou said with a sigh before shaking his head. "So how did Zelretch make this work? He didn't make another holy grail, did he?"

"Not exactly." Kiritsugu said as he led him into one of the nearby buildings. "Zelretch called it the FATE system. Essentially, it acts like a holy grail that is able to bring down a heroic spirit long enough for a contract to be established. It was a system used to summon me during my time as a counter guardian."

"So... It's like a holy grail that can't make wishes?"

"Yes." Kiritsugu nodded. "Zelretch gave the blueprints to a corporation called Cheldea in order to allow them to summon heroic spirits. I don't know how it exactly runs, but it's already set up in the basement."

He moved a sack of crates to reveal a set of stairs leading downwards. Flipping a switch, the lights flickered on and illuminated the passageway. As they descended downwards, shirou felt a question build up in his throat.

"Dad, what do you mean when you called it the 'spewer of black keys'?" Shirou asked with a frown.

Kiritsugu shivered a little, remembering his masters numerous attempts at summoning more servants and only being able to pull out black keys.

"For your sake I hope you never have to figure it out." Kiritsugu said as they reached the bottom. "Alright... Here's the switch." He flicked another switch and the sound of humming filled the air as a machine activated in the middle of the room.

"Here it is." Kiritsugu gestured. "The servant summoning system that we will use. Or as the eggheads at Chaldea call it, FATE."

Shirou whistled as he eyed the machine. It was a circular platform with a summoning circle in the middle of it. Balls of light surrounded the edge of the magic circle and spun slowly in a hypnotizing manner.

"I don't suppose Zelretch gave us any catalysts to use."

"No. The process is entirely random."

"Of course it is." Shirou sighed. Of course Zelretch would set up a gambling system like this. The only difference being that he was gambling literal lives.

Well, if he put it that way, there wasn't much difference.

"You do know what the summoning ritual chant is, right?" Kiritsugu asked as he flicked on another set of switches, causing the machine's hum to increase.

"Of course. I've been summoned by my fair share of Grail wars." Shirou said with a snort.

"Seems like your snarky attitude is something you inherited." Kiritsugu said with an amused shake of his head. "Even if we aren't blood related, it's amazing how much you look like me."

"Saber said the same thing." Shirou thought as he watched his dad work the machine. Of course, he never hated his dad for being the reason of his ideals, but measly regretted making the same mistakes that he did. Watching him now after hundreds of years was certainly odd.

Kiritsugu wasn't the best father figure either. Although, he wouldn't have asked for anyone else.

"There. That should do it." Kiritsugu said as the machines hum increased even further. "Come on. We have to begin the chant now while the machine is at its peak."

Shirou nodded and stood beside his father. With a deep breath, the two of them began the chant that would call forth their new partners.

Let silver and steel be the essence.  
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.  
Let red be the color I pay tribute to.  
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.  
Let the four cardinal gates close.  
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate."  
"Let it be filled. Again. Again. Again. Again.  
Let it be filled fivefold for every turn, simply breaking asunder with every filling.

The circle of orbs began circling the summoning circle at high speeds, causing the room to fill with bright light. The circle of orbs expanded outwards before retreating inwards, creating an explosion of light that forced them to shield their eyes in response.

When the light died down enough for the two of them to remove their hands, two new figures were standing before them.

One of them was a girl who looked to be in her mid teens to young adulthood. She wore a green dress with a green combat skirt that was fitted tightly around her body. Her footwear was a set of high black boots that covered most of her skin. Her hair was unkempt and slightly yellow and green. What caught his attention the most, however, was the girls... Beastly appearance.

She had a lions tail poking out from her skirt and had a pair of cat ears on top of her head. Normally it would have been a weird appearance on earth, but this world had similar looking people called Faunusts. Humans with animalistic qualities that are not too uncommon to stumble across.

The person beside her was definitely a man. He was wearing a dark blue coat around him with some sort of strange insignia on the back. He wore a top hat that covered his white hair and a fancy red tie that ran from his neck.

The man's eyes were bright red with a sense of ferocity in them. Which, in turn, contrasted well with his pale skin.

He also cackled with electricity. The energy literally coursing through and around his strange cloak.

"Servant archer has answered your summons." The cat girl said, fixing her eyes on shirou with a judging expression.

"Servant avenger has also answered your summons!" The man said with barely restrained glee as he tipped his hat and bowed.

"We ask you two, are you our masters?" Both of them asked in synchronization. Shirou and kiritsugu shared a look before nodding.

"yes." Shirou confirmed, earning a satisfied look from the duo.

"Then the pact is sealed." Archer said as she pointed to his hand, where command seals were starting to form into the pattern of arrows.

"Mhm!" The man with the hat grinned as he stared at kiritsugu. "Then that must mean that you're my official master! Wonderful! To think that my master is like this... It seems we're going to fit together well like puzzle pieces!"

Kiritsugu, shirou, and archer frowned. The man was definitely crazy.

"Who... Are you, avenger?" Kiritsugu asked.

The man blinked before shrugging and straightening himself up."Edmond Dantes, at your service." The man bowed, surprising everyone.

"Count of Monte Cristo?" Shirou thought, vaguely remembering the story behind the man.

"The most famous avenger." Kiritsugu muttered. Figures that he would be the one to summon him. Sighing, kiritsugu grabbed the man's ear and began pulling him towards the stairs despite the man's protest. "come on. We need to get some facts straight."

"Ow! Let me go! Master!" The count complained in a childlike manner before disappearing up the stairs, leaving shirou and archer alone.

Silence settled between the two of them before Shirou decided to try and break the ice.

"So... Are those ears and tail real?"

Despite the rudeness of such a question, the girls lips twitched into a small smile.

"Yes." She admitted as she scratched her ears. "I didn't have them while I was alive, though. They are merely a manifestation of my legend." She tilted her head. "Do they bother you at all?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, not at all. I was just curious." He sat down in a nearby chair and casually leaned back. "By the way, since we will be working together in the future, would you mind telling me your true name?"

The girl blinked before shrugging. "My true name is Atalanta. Servant of the goddess Artemis."

"The chaste huntress of Greece, Eh?" Shirou muttered to himself.

The huntress suddenly gave him a cute pout. "Were you perhaps going for someone else?"

Shirou's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Ah... No. I was honestly doing a random roll. You were just the servant I got during the roll." He smiled. "I believe that the two of us could work together well so don't think I'm disappointed."

Atalanta chuckled. "My. I seemed to have gotten summoned by a peculiar master." Her face became serious. "Even if you are my master, don't think you can get away with stealing looks. I will not tolerate it."

Shirou chuckled nervously. Honestly, why do women always think he does that?

"Got it."

Atalanta's smile made him sweat a little bit. "It's good to see that my master knows his place." She headed towards the stairs. "Let's head above ground, master. Your partner may be having trouble with his servant."

"Actually, he's my dad." Shirou said as he began following her. "And I don't think he'd have any trouble."

Said point was proven when Avenger's yelp of pain and Kiritsugu's annoyed tone reached their ears.

For once, shirou's luck actually held out for him.

* * *

 **Hey, guys! Finally managed to crank this 7136 worded chapter. The most I have ever done as of yet.**

 **For those of you who haven't been in touch with the newly added servants in grand order, Kiritsugu Emiya happened to be one of them. This version of kiritsugu is one where he becomes a counter guardian before he died like Shirou. Since he's the most badass male character besides Gilgamesh and Broskander, I wanted to add him here.**

 **There is also the fact that I gave each of them a servant. Since shirou will be working by himself, I thought I should at least give him a familiar to work with. Atalanta was actually the first 4 star archer that I got so I decided to partner her up with shirou.**

 **As for Edmond Dantes being partnered with Kiritsugu, I think it fits. Both of them committed acts in the name of justice and were scorned by the public. The only difference is that Dante did it for revenge while Kiritsugu did it for the greater good.**

 **I was actually considering using Li Shuwen in his old assassin version to be kiritsugu's servant, but I ultimately settled on Edmond Dantes since he seemed more compatible.**

 **Also, I might be adding a few more servants to the mix later so if you want to leave a suggestion I might consider it.**

 **Also, this story won't turn into a holy grail war fight. I know that many people don't like it when that happens so I'm not going to make it so Zelretch had set up a grail war in Vale or something like that.**

 **Thats it for this chapter. Next time, I'll answer a few of your questions. It's getting late now and I'm getting really tired of looking at a screen all day.**

 **Peace!**

 **-Baloshua**


	6. Chapter 6

"So... A counter guardian." Atlanta muttered as she stared at Shirou with newfound interest. "That explains the weird vibe I'm getting from you."

"Yep." Shirou replied casually as he picked up a rock and threw it at the ocean water, watching it skip.

"What was it like?" Atlanta asked with curiosity as she sat beside him and plucked at her bow string. A habit she picked up whenever she sat around for hours waiting for an animal to walk into her den.

"It's not as glorious as it sounds." Shirou said with a sigh as he dangled his feet over the edge of the pier. "It was enjoyable at first. I was saving people and purging those who would do them harm. Usual solution for those types of job is to just kill the bad guys and make sure the collateral damage was kept to a minimum."

Atlanta raised her eyebrow, but kept quiet as Shirou continued on.

"Then Alaya started sending me on missions that required a much... larger solution." Shirou said with disgust as he threw another stone. "My jobs went from protecting the innocent to killing anyone in the associated area. A dead apostle had a base situated in an airport and was dangerously close to reaching the root. Alaya simply dropped me on the scene and told me to kill everyone there since the dead apostle had the uncanny ability to move from host to host. Women, children, old or young, I slaughtered them all for the sake of the mission."

Atlanta's eyes widened. "Couldn't Alaya drop you in at an earlier time instead of waiting until the last moment?"

"The counter force usually never deploys until all other options have been exhausted. It didn't help that the apostle was using a boundary field and a reality marble to isolate itself off from the rest of the world." Shirou gave Atalanta a sad look. "I joined the Counter Force because I wanted to be a hero. Instead, I became a cleaner of humanity. Cleaning up after their wars and worldly disputes."

"You wanted to join the counter guardians... so you could obtain the power to be a hero?" Atalanta asked with narrowed eyes. "A foolish choice."

"I know, you don't have to remind me." Shirou sighed. "I already had the power to do so, but I still wanted to help people even after I died." He chuckled without humor. "It was a noble goal, but I was simply too naive to know when to quit. I wanted to help others... because it was the only thing I ever took pleasure in. The only thing that made me feel like my life was worth living."

He sighed in disappointment. "The reasons for such pleasure was because of some trauma when I was younger. I was the only survivor out of hundreds of others when a fire broke out in my home. My dad was the one who saved me, and helped take care of me for the remainder of his life before he passed away. Before he did, he told me that his dream was to become a hero of justice who could save everyone. That, coupled with my survivor guilt, made up my entire existance and transformed me into what you see today."

Atalanta was silent as she stared at her young master. A hero of justice? Someone who could save everyone? A foolish dream, but a noble goal to have. He was someone who could only find happiness in the happiness of others. A broken person who was betrayed by the weight of his ideals.

She was born in a time where it was kill or be killed. In the wilderness, you had to kill others to survive and the only person you could ever rely on was yourself. That didn't mean she was above helping people. Whenever she came across children in need, she would always try to help them as much as she could and would even go out of her way to do so. In a way, she wasn't much more different than Shirou.

The only difference was that she didn't seek to help everyone and knew her limits. She knew it was impossible for her to help everyone and focused on helping those around her. Her master, on the other hand, actively went out and tried to help anyone in the name of justice. He stomped on other peoples hopes and dreams because he firmly believed in helping others and achieving the impossible utopia of world peace.

"How many?" Atalanta asked with a quiet voice. Counter guardians existed out of time, so her master could have been hundreds of years old. If that was so...

"How many grains of bread have you ever eaten?" Shirou said with a hollow chuckle. "You could also try counting the stars in the sky, but it would be pointless. I couldn't begin to tally up the amount of people who I killed, it's just that large."

Atalanta pursed her lips. She never showed much sympathy because of how she was brought up, but she certainly felt bad for her master. He sounded absolutely heartbroken as he talked, and looked as if he had aged several hundred years in the span of several minutes.

She didn't know why she accepted the invitation to come back as a familiar. She knew this was no grail war, but something had made her want to accept the summoning invitation. Perhaps it was because of the grief this man possessed?

She sighed. "Look, Master, I won't deny that your way of thinking was quite stupid. Still, I don't think I can fault you for that." She slugged him lightly on the shoulder, making him wince a little bit at the action. "As your servant, it is my duty to make sure that my master is taken care of. If you start going back to your old self, I will do everything I can to bring you back."

Shirou went still with wide eyes in surprise at the declaration from his catty servant. He sighed, before giving her a genuine smile.

"Thank you, Atalanta."

"If you want to thank me, go make me an apple pie." Atalanta said with a wave of her hand before she continued with a softer tone. "Though I guess your worlds will have to do."

"I didn't expect the chase huntress to be so soft." Shirou said with a teasing chuckle, causing Atalanta to shoot him an annoyed look.

"I'm not. I'm simply saying what needed to be said. My survival is tied with yours, so I can't exist in this world without you. If you were to die, I would fade away several days later. That's the only reason why I'm even saying this to you." Atalanta said with a huff before she stood up. "I hear your father coming right now."

As if on cue, Kiritsugu came around the corner with an annoyed look on his face while Dante still had his child like smile.

"Aw... Come on, master! We could totally go out and get some fine wine! Maybe kill some criminals or something." Dante said with a grin as he looped his arm over Kiritsugu like they were best buddies that had known each other for a while instead of a newly formed pair.

"For the last time, Dante," Kiritsugu said with an annoyed tone as he shrugged his servants arm off of him. "We can't go around killing criminals to satisfy your avenger tendencies. I'm not going back to that life unless it can't be helped." He waved a paper underneath the counts nose. "If we're going to do something like that, we're going to do it legally."

"How is killing others legal?" Dante complained as he shoved the paper away.

"It's called mercenary work." Kiritsugu said with a sigh. "Bounty missions are the legal way to do things around here. Considering the state the world is in right now, mercenaries for hire are in demand right now. That should be enough to satisfy your need for justice."

Dante eyed the paper with a frown before sighing. "Have it your way, master." He put a hand to his chin and muttered to himself. "At least this way I'll get paid..."

Kiritsugu face palmed. The Count of Monte Cristo was essentially the batman of france. If Batman killed people, shot laser beams, and had a tendency to seek revenge with a bloody passion. Even if Dante had no personal agenda with anybody, he was still the embodiment of violent justice. If he saw something that went against his moral code he would not hesitate to rip it apart with his bare hands. Unpunished crime happened to be one of them.

He turned to Shirou and gave him a light smile. "Come on, Shirou. Show me the way to Beacon. I'm very interested to see what this supposed advanced combat school is like and what they teach kids there."

Shirou's expression turned uncomfortable. Even if he was a hardened battle warrior, he was uncomfortable with his dad being in the presence of other students. He wasn't exactly the most approachable of people. "Why would you even need to do that, dad?"

Kiritsugu gave him a curious look. "Why not? I'm interested. And besides, isn't it normal for the dad to at least check out the school his son is going to?"

"Damn it, dad." Shirou muttered in annoyance. "Fine. Just don't try to freak out the other students so much." He turned to Atalanta and frowned. "Which would you rather prefer, spirit or physical form?"

"Doesn't matter much to me." Atalanta said with a wave of her hand. "Although, I'll mostly stick in physical form if you do not mind. I feel much more better having my feet on the ground."

Shirou inwardly winced. While Atalanta would fit in normally because she could pass off as a faunus, that could very likely become a bad thing. Right now, the faunus were receiving some serious racial bigotry from humans. Faunus, while having rights instituted by the world council, are not even taken into consideration by humans. Most shops would never consider selling clothes to them, and most restaurants wouldn't even bother with giving them decent food. Those that did often charged extra to squeeze out more money, knowing that the Faunus had no choice since they wouldn't be able to get food elsewhere.

Racism was something he didn't take likely. Unfortunately, things like these wouldn't go away unless a massive step was taking place.

Which, ironically, was happening in Vacuo right now. The kingdom of Vacuo holds the most faunus out of the other three and were more tolerable of the. Unfortunately, there were many violent confrontations between faunus' rights groups and a small racist group called 'The Disciples of Remnant'. There had been many skirmishes, but none of the kingdoms were considering sending any of their military to help sort things out. They were seemingly deeming the fight 'not important enough' for any of them to step in. In truth, however, the kingdoms were probably making a buck off of the war economy that was going down there and were content with letting the fight carry on.

The kingdoms did make a minor attempt to settle things peacefully before they began by offering an alternative that would satisfy both sides. They would herd up all of the Faunus and ship them off to a large island named Menagerie. If he had to compare it to earth, it would have been like the continent of Australia.

In truth, it really wasn't a large scale fight, but it held a lot of meaning behind it. Whoever wins could potentially change the entire world on how humans and faunus view each other.

Atalanta sighed as she saw the look of conflict on his face. she already knew enough about this world thanks to him discussing it with her earlier.

"I'll be fine. Nothing new to me." She said without a hint of care for the potential discrimination she could receive.

"...Alright." Shirou said with a sigh. "Just don't blame me if you have people harassing you." He began walking away with his hands in his pocket towards the nearest road, leaving the three of them in silence as they watched him leave.

"Please forgive my... son." Kiritsugu apologized with a sheepish expression.

"...Come on, he's not going to wait for us to follow him." Atalanta said with a light tone as she followed after her master. She didn't acknowledge his apology verbally, but it was clear that she already accepted the reason.

"Are you sure he's adopted?" Dante asked as he eyed Shirou. "The both of you act way too similar, not like its a bad thing."

"We're related in name only." Kiritsugu said firmly. While he did find it strange that Shirou took after him in many ways, he simply believed it was a coincidence.

Dante shrugged. "Whatever, I'll take your word for it. Unlike you, he seems like a much more emotional person. If only I got him as a master..." He muttered with a slightly jealous look, causing Kiritsugu to glare at him.

"You're stuck with me, deal with it." Kiritsugu said sternly as he grabbed Dante's collar and began pulling him along. "Although, I wish I got her instead as well. At least she's more serious than you are."

"I can be serious whenever I want to!" Dante defended as he struggled in Kiritsugu's steel grip. "And stop messing up the collar! These clothes didn't come cheap!"

* * *

"This is Beacon." Shirou said with a blank look. "The battle school for gifted youngsters."

"France had bigger castles." Dante commented.

"I blew up a fortress this big." Kiritsugu said sourly.

"The Calydonian boar ate places like this for breakfast." Atalanta threw in her two cents.

Shirou grunted. "Cut them some slack. It's a training school, not an Anti-Army fortress."

"There's no security defenses that I can see." Kiritsugu pointed out, having already used his tactical eye to study the structural defenses. "The walls are reinforced with several layers of high density stone and are all structurally placed in key points around the central buildings. However, any well placed missile could easily take it down."

"The academy is a symbol of peace, dad. It's meant to show the unified peace between the four kingdoms and having weapons stationed around the place would just give it a bad impression." Shirou said as he leaned against the glass pane.

"Looks like the sort of place that would hold many valuables." Dante grinned as he eyed the beautiful decorations. "While it doesn't compare to the treasure from Monte Cristo, I could certainly start my collection again from here."

"Shouldn't an Avenger like you should be against committing crimes?" Atalanta asked with a scowl. "Aren't you being a bit hypocritical?"

Dante pouted. "Hey... I was just joking! I just wanted to have some fun since I'm back in the world of the living." he waved his hand dismissively. "I only steal from those who deserve to be stolen from. Like the boss man's kid said, it's a symbol of peace. Therefore, I don't have any reason to take anything from them."

"I'm not a kid." Shirou muttered in annoyance.

"To be fair, you are younger than me." Dante pointed out with a snide smile, making shirou's hand twitch in annoyance as his finger started to raise.

"Now, now you two." Kiritsugu said quickly before Shirou could start throwing swords and potentially destroy the entire ship. "We're in a public space."

"Tch." Shirou lowered his finger, much to Kiritsugu's relief. "You have a point, old man."

"Geez, Boss. What's the big deal? It's just a little brawl." Dante muttered in disappointment.

"You'll get the chance to satisfy your battle urges later. Right now, prepare to disembark." Kiritsugu said as he began making his way to the landing platform. Dante simply pouted before he turned into spirit form and disappeared.

"Your father is going to have his hands full." Atalanta said with a shake of her head. "Spirits of vengeance are the worse."

"The old man can handle it." Shirou said as he watched the landing gear click into place. "He's not the worst thing my dad has ever experienced." He leaned off the glass pane and made his way towards the ramp. "Once we land, try not to shoot arrows at anyone."

"No promises." Atalanta said with a shrug as she materialized her bow over her shoulder. "I shall endure, but even I have my limits."

"We all do." Shirou sympathized as he finally managed to catch up to his father. "It's a little bit confusing at first, but I'm sure that I can find my way around here without trouble."

"They don't have a history or directory around here?" Kiritsugu asked as they disembarked the ship.

"I'm sure we'll be given a tour tomorrow. When we first landed, they expected everyone to find the auditorium on our own." Shirou explained.

"At least they do not baby you." Atalanta scoffed. "Great way to build character."

"Discipline is a very important aspect." Kiritsugu said in agreement.

"Actually, most of the kids aren't very disciplined. Very few of them really are. All of them act like college students and tend to go goof off whenever class is over."

"Don't talk as if you weren't one of them." Kiritsugu said with an amused smile, causing Shirou to cough in embarassment as he remembered how he usually went back home immediately after school to spend hours upon hours practicing low level magecraft.

"That was a long time ago." Shirou muttered while Atalanta put a hand over her mouth to cover her amused expression.

"That depends on your definition of long." A familiar voice said from behind them. Shirou turned around and found Ozpin with his coffee mug which had still yet to be caught empty.

Ozpin gave him a small smile. "Don't you believe that no matter how old we get, we still act like children?"

"That depends." Shirou said with a shrug. His eyebrow raised a little bit when he saw that Kiritsugu and Atalanta appeared to be on guard. "Relax you two, he's harmless."

"I wouldn't go as far to say that..." Ozpin said with a chuckle. "There is a reason why they call me the headmaster of beacon, after all."

Kiritsugu and Atalanta blinked at the man in surprise.

"You're the headmaster?" Atalanta asked as she eyed the young man in front of him. She had been expecting someone more elderly than a man who looked to be in his late twenties.

"That would be correct, miss." Ozpin said with a politeful nod before his eye twinkled. "Also, I can assure you that age has nothing to do with leadership."

"Did you just..." Atalanta began.

"...Read your mind?" Ozpin finished with a smile. "No, my dear. It's just a question that floats through everyone's heads when they look at me. I have just gotten used to it." He tilted his head curiously. "May I please know your names? It's certainly rare when we get outsiders from Vale."

Kiritsugu stepped forward first, drawing Ozpin's attention. "I am Kiritsugu Emiya, Shirou's father. I was just curious as to the school Shirou would be attending and wanted to check it out for myself."

"Quite understandable." Ozpin said as he shook Kiritsugu's hand. "Your son has demonstrated impressive skills during the initiation test. He says you were the one who taught him everything he knows."

Kiritsugu chuckled. "Not all of it. Just small things like survival skills and the such. He learned everything else on his own."

"Then he must be quite the learner." Ozpin said with a chuckle of his own before he turned to Atalanta. "It's quite rare for me to see Faunus nowadays since most of them are in Vacuo as of now. What is your name, young lady?"

"Atalanta." The huntress introduced with a curt bow. "It's an honor to meet you, headmaster of Beacon."

Ozpin waved his hand. "Please, no need to call me by that title. Call me Mr. Ozpin or Oz for short."

Atalanta blinked. The headmaster seemed really laid back for such a high position. "If you say so, Mr. Oz."

Ozpin nodded as his eyes were drawn to her tail and cat ears. "It's strange to see a Faunus not participating in the war. What ties do you have with one of my students?"

"She's a childhood friend." Shirou lied quickly but with no change in facial emotion.

"A faunus?" Ozpin said with a frown. "Your friend?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem, Mr. Ozpin?" Shirou asked with a slight challenge in his tone. To his surprise, Ozpin simply laughed with amusement.

"No, it is not. I'm just glad that there is at least one student in my school who can at least accept others." He sighed sadly as he regarded Atalanta. "You got lucky. Not many people are willing to accept Faunus right now."

"Er... Thank you, sir." Atalanta said with an embarrassed look.

"By the way..." Ozpin began as he dug around in his pocket for a moment before coming up with a card "Your room number. Just wave your scroll in front of the lock to open it. You may take your friend with you if you want for a small tour." He said as he tossed the card.

Shirou caught the card and glanced at it quickly before nodding. "Come on, Atalanta."

Atalanta nodded as she followed after him. Before she could get far, however, Ozpin's voice stopped her.

"Young lady, if you encounter any... problems, please don't hesitate to tell me about it."

Atalanta nodded, surprised that Ozpin would show concern for those who weren't his students and was willing to defend them. No wonder he was able to make it to headmaster at such a young age.

"No worries sir, I will. Atalanta said as she and Shirou resumed walking towards where the student bunks were located.

"Now that that's taken care of..." Ozpin said as he took another sip of coffee and turned to Kiritsugu. "Would you mind for a little chat while I give you a tour?"

Kiritsugu shrugged. He came here to do just that, didn't he? "Not at all. Lead the way."

Ozpin nodded, and began leading Kiritsugu towards the central buildings of his prestigious academy.

* * *

"This place certainly is grand." Kiritsugu commented as he went through the multiple classrooms with Ozpin.

"Well, this place was founded by Vale after the Great War as their gift to the world." Ozpin said with another sip of coffee. "It's paid for by the kingdom itself, so of course it would be designed and kept in the most pristine condition."

"But there aren't any defense systems in place." Kiritsugu pointed out. "What do you think will happen if the school were to be attacked?"

Ozpin bit his lip. "There are trained huntsmen in Vale and in the school at all times. Each of them had been in the business for more than 10 years and have all graduated from Beacon. Some of them are experts in dealing with Grimm while some others are experts with dealing with humans." He shook his head. "It is quite sad that we need those kind, but humans can be even worse than Grimm."

 _"He does have a point, boss."_ Dante said through their link. _"You and me both know that to be true."_

Kiritsugu winced. _"And are you proud of that?"_

He was met with only silence and he could only assume that the avenger had already moved off somewhere to go and leisurely explore the place, no doubt trying to find something that can satisfy him other than a boring school tour.

"It seems you know what I'm talking about." Ozpin said as he eyed him. "Your son told me that you were not a hunter, but a mercenary. While there isn't much of a difference between the two, mercenaries tend to work on the morale grey area of things."

"Your point?" Kiritsugu asked warily.

"My point is that you yourself may know that for a fact or from personal experience." Ozpin said with another sip of coffee. "I'm the headmaster of Beacon, and deemed the most skilled to take the job. Wouldn't you think it'd be strange if someone like me couldn't sense all of the blood on your hands?"

"...I left that life behind." Kiritsugu said as he kept his hands in his pocket.

"I can see that." Ozpin quipped as he sized him up. "While anyone else may not trust you, I'm certain that you yourself aren't a bad person by nature, and neither is your son. Which is why I'm going to ask you for help with a certain job."

At the mention of job, Kiritsugu straightened out of habit. "A job?"

Ozpin nodded. "Have you heard of the Faunus and human skirmishes down in Vacuo?"

"Of course, who couldn't have?" Kiritsugu snorted.

"While the kingdoms aren't doing anything to stop it, they are certainly worried." Ozpin said as his fingers drummed the cane in his hand. "Civil unrest is something we fear the most. It attracts Grimm and causes disorder. Something the kingdoms swore to avoid after the Great War."

"Which is why sending an entire army would be bad." Kiritsugu muttered.

"Exactly." Ozpin nodded. "Things are already bad right now. We don't need panic by sending our entire armed forces there. The Faunus are already panicking because of the suggestion to ship them off to Menagerie and are fighting back. Of course, The Disciples of Remnants are clearly against their acts and strongly oppose them. People are getting scared, Kiritsugu, and whoever wins could potentially change the entire world of Remnant."

"And having the council reinforce the rules will cause The Disciples of Remnants and any Faunus hater to violently protest against them for not having their way." Kiritsugu growled as his fists clenched.

"The Disciples of Remnants were classified as a terrorist group even before their apparent hatred of Faunus kind." Ozpin said with a shrug. "Not even most of the human society likes them. If they were to be taken out of the equation, however, and allow the Faunus rebels to win..."

"Then that would allow for the least amount of damage." Kiritsugu summarized with a small mischievous smile. "Now... Where does this involve me?"

"Oh, nothing much. It wouldn't exactly be the kingdoms fault if something were to suddenly happen to several of The Disciple or Remant's bases. It also wouldn't be our fault if a random human with no traces to the kingdoms or military was the one to blame. Or..." Ozpin trailed off with a smile. "Or if something happened to several important leaders of the terrorist's group."

"Espionage and assassination are my specialties." Kiritsugu admitted. "It wouldn't be hard for me to pull this off, but what's in it for me?"

"How about a hunter's license and have the rest of Shirou's education covered for free?" Ozpin offered with a smile. "A hunters license is one of the most important shows of credential in Remnant. Good or bad, a hunter license almost guarantees you of getting a job or living a good life." He shrugged. "People also tend to trust hunters more instead of... Mercenaries."

Kiritsugu paused for a moment in thought. While this was something he did in the past, this was the perfect opportunity for him to correct his mistakes. He could be a true hero of justice instead of a crazy criminal who slaughtered all in his way for the sake of his goals.

Besides, he would actually be truly fighting for those who deserved justice, not just for himself. Those working for the terrorist organization were evil people and needed to be eliminated. This time, however, he would do it the right way.

Yes, there was no reason for him to think about his decision.

"I'll do it." Kiritsugu said with a nod.

"Excellent." Ozpin said with a smile before it turned sad. "Believe me, we have tried all other options to try and sort this out. You are my last plan before the final solution to send in our troops. For the world's sake, I hope you don't fail."

"I won't." Kiritsugu promised. "Someone like me never fails their job, but before I take it..."

"Yes?"

"I want you to hand me information about my targets." Kiritsugu said as he took out his scroll that he had bought several weeks ago. "I always study my targets before I eliminate them. No matter how powerful I may be, I don't underestimate my opponents."

Ozpin nodded. "Smart of you. Very well, I shall gather as much data as I can on The Disciples of Remnants and send it to your shortly."

"Good." Kiritsugu said professionally as he raised his hand for a handshake. Ozpin raised his eyebrow before he threw his coffee mug straight into the air, surprising Kiritsugu as the headmaster gave his hand a quick shake before catching the mug as it fell back down, not even letting a drop of coffee slip out.

"You really like your coffee." Kiritsugu said with a deadpan while Ozpin just chuckled.

"I'm not going to deny that."

* * *

 **That's it! This chapter is much shorter, but it did come out much earlier than the last one.**

 **As I promised I'll try to answer as much of your comments that I can.**

 **Blazedflame: Yeah, sorry about that. I'll try not to do that as much in the future. It just fills up more room for me.**

 **DPSS: Just because Shirou has as much prana as the Holy Grail, doesn't mean he can simply use it all in one go. If he did, it would drain him dry and kill him. There is also such a thing as 'magical output' While it can be said that it is high, he said that tracing excalibur in his weakened state would be enough to kill him, implying that the more higher forms of weapons would burden his body with more stress from the magical output.**

 **That's also why you don't see him go around making hundreds of copies of Excalibur to shoot them at people and why he usually traces nameless swords that he himself made since they don't need as much energy to create. Feel free to point out any flaws so that I can possibly change it.**

 **MechaJesus2: Sorry, couldn't tell the difference.**

 **Emris: Thanks for the positive review. It truly means a lot to hear stuff like this :)**

 **That should be enough for now. I'm not really getting many questions and they're mostly general statements. If I missed any of your questions, I promise that I shall answer them in the next chapter.**

 **Stay tuned for the next chapter!**

 **-baloshua**


	7. Chapter 7

"That man is dangerous." Atalanta said as she followed after Shirou towards the dorm building. "He's not natural."

"Headmaster." Shirou said simply. "Believe me, I can tell too. He's leagues above anything inside of this academy."

"Are you sure you can trust him?" Atalanta asked with a slight hint of distrust. "It's the honest ones you need to watch out for."

"Because you can never tell whenever they are going to do something incredibly stupid." Shirou said with a small smile. "At least you can trust a dishonest person to be dishonest."

Atalanta's lip twitched. "I wouldn't say all people, but the majority of them, yes." Her thoughts drifted to a certain purple haired witch whom she had once been close friends with.

"You're thinking of Medea, aren't you?"

Atalanta blinked. "How did you know?"

"We fought each other in my previous Grail war. I also know a bit about your legend and how you were one of the crew members of the Argo. Giving on the type of people we are talking about, it isn't hard for me to deduce specifically on who you know with those traits." Shirou said casually, earning a smile from the huntress.

"How perceptive of you." She said with an impressed tone. "Tell me, how was she like?"

"She was a cunning individual. She actually managed to break several rules of the Holy Grail war and nearly came close to winning." Shirou said, remembering how the vixen had managed to bring Saber under her control. With her, she could have managed to win the grail war, but she was too confident in her abilities.

"That sounds like her." Atalanta said with a chuckle. "Medea and I go way back. I used to run into her from time to time after her incident with Jason." She growled distastefully as she said the hero's name. "The bastard had the nerve to abandon her ever after all she had done for him."

Shirou slightly leaned away from the huntress, honestly a little bit perturbed by the sheer amount of malice in her voice. "Do you really hate him that much?"

Atalanta snorted. "You have no idea. He doesn't deserve most of the credit with the golden fleece even if he was the one to organize the party. In truth, he was absolutely pathetic in the art of combat, relying on the other members to protect him and do his dirty work. It was only his charisma that managed to get him through the trials on the way to Colchis."

"So he was a uniting figure." Shirou frowned, having a little bit of trouble with some of those in the past.

"Basically." Atalanta said with a shrug. "He wasn't that bad of a person. His goals were noble for the most part, but he was such a jerk about it that almost made everyone rebel against him once." She sighed. "You won't find that in the history books, either. People eventually forgot about the bad parts and just decided to focus on Jason's good side. Which, honestly, he didn't have much of."

"But wasn't he supposedly taught by the teacher Chiron?"

"I don't actually know." Atalanta admitted. "He never talked much about his training to any of us. Whenever we tried to pry the information out of him, he'd just shut his mouth and not speak."

"Well, history isn't always set in stone." Shirou said with a shrug before frowning as a rock flew past his head which Atalanta had to move her head to dodge. Turning his head to the side, he saw four snickering teens standing by the bench. The one who had thrown the rock was a blond teen with a cowboy hat and a pair of ripped jeans. His shirt was unbuttoned and showed off his abs in a cocky sort of way. There was a grey revolver holstered at his waist that had a cylinder that held eight rounds.

The other three of them looked to be as similarly dressed as their leader except for the fact that each of them had different colored clothing and a different weapon strapped to their side. One of them had a mace, another had a spear, and one had a rapier. Each of their weapons transformed into guns, giving each of them a separate roll in their team. Effective, but Shirou was known for dismantling people who deemed themselves special.

"Look at what we have here, Gang." The leader said with a cold grin. "A filthy faunus, and a girl at that."

Shirou glared, already increasing his dislike meter for the people in front of him. Atalanta wasn't faring much better and looked like she was going to start filling the guy with arrows.

"Who are you?" Shirou asked with a calm, but threatening, tone.

"I should be the one asking who the hell you are." The teen growled as he casually palmed the rock in his hand. "Who do you think you are, bringing a faunus into beacon?"

"Figure that out for yourself." Shirou growled. "Call me when you figure it out. Once you do, I'll pay you a visit."

The teen snarled. "I've seen the act before. You're nothing. Don't think you can fool me with your tough guy act. Unlike you, I actually got on a team."

"Cool. The headmaster thought it'd be fit to put me in a team by myself since I'm much more skilled than four shirtless teens who have nothing better to do with their life but try and pick on others." Shirou shot back, making the teen growl.

"Forget it, your tough guy act doesn't fool me. Just be lucky I don't feel like sending you to the hospital ward in a body bag." He turned to Atalanta and huffed. "You should get out of here, Cat girl, you're not wanted here. You don't have the skills to even walk the grounds of this academy."

"I don't need to go to some fancy academy to learn how to kill people, I already know how to." Atalanta said as she glared at the teen, making him freeze slightly before he turned to his friends with wide eyes.

"You see! This Faunus girl has admitted to knowing how to kill! She plans to kill us all!" The teen declared, making his friends stare at Atalanta angrily as he roused them on. "Let's throw her out of here before she can do anything!"

"You can try," Atalanta spoke up as a clicking sound reached their ears, making the teen freeze. "But I'd like to see you even try putting your hands on me."

"What?!" The teen spun around in surprise and saw Atalanta holding a revolver casually in her right hand. "M-my gun!" He yelped in surprise as he recognized the handgun in her hand and patted his pocket to reveal that the holster had been carefully opened and the contents had been carefully taken out. "Y-you bitch! You took my gun!"

"Glad to see some gears turning in your heads." Atalanta said with a mock sigh as she thumbed the hammer. She had never actually seen a gun before until now, but the machine had already given her a minor bit of information about the important stuff. "You're not skilled enough to take me on. You didn't even notice when someone stole your weapon. In the battlefield, such carelessness can get you killed."

"Give me back my gun!" The teen cried as his hand shot out to grab it, only for Atalanta to simply back up quickly and hold the weapon out of his reach.

"Do you think the enemy will simply give you back your gun because you asked?" Atalanta asked with a shake of her head. "Don't worry, though. Since I'm a nice person, I'll give it back to you."

Shirou winced as Atalanta drew her hand back and pistol whipped the guy across the face with a sickening crack. The teen's aura flickered around him as it activated to block the attack, but it didn't do much against the irate servant. Even if she had D ranked strength, it was still leagues above what a regular hunter could possibly do.

"Guh!" The teen spun backwards and fell to the ground with a broken nose, freezing his friends as they stared at their fallen leader in shock at the fact that one woman, a faunus no less, was able to knock him out with a single blow to the head.

She casually opened the cylinder to the revolver and emptied out the bullets before snapping it shut and tossing it over to the prone form below her. "If you know what's you won't try this again. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a much harsher punishment." She walked past Shirou with a smirk on her face. "Come on, lets go. Let his friends take care of this mess."

Shirou nodded, before casting his own look towards the terrified group and giving a warning of his own. "Tell your leader that if he ever does something like this again, I will bring him into the medical ward in a bucket, Understand?" Earning hesitant nods in response, he smirked. "Good. Now, get the hell out of here and take him to the medical ward. Looks like a broken cheekbone if you ask me. Probably might have to eat out of a straw for the rest of his life."

He could see the anger written in their eyes. They were definitely surprised by the sudden take down, but they obviously hadn't learned their lesson if the tensing of their muscles were any indication. They would try something again as soon as their leader got better.

He inwardly smiled at the thought. No skin off of his back. That just meant he would get to teach these guys another lesson later.

Following after the huntress, he could make out a ghost of a smile that was on her lips as she stared straight ahead.

"You know, I would have thought that you would have been bothered by this." Shirou commented idly, causing her to smirk.

"Don't be mistaken, I was pretty annoyed." Atalanta admitted. "Although, the chance to humiliate those fools was worth it. Classifying them as mediocre warriors would be too nice. How did they even get into this school in the first place?"

"Luck." Shirou said with a shrug. "I don't know his name, but I did overhear some other students talking about someone resembling him managing to steal some relics off of another group of initiates without any work on his own by camping out by the base of the cliff."

Atalanta snorted. "A cowardly act. While I can respect waiting for your prey in a hunt, what they were doing is heresy."

"This is why I didn't want to be partnered with any other team." Shirou muttered with a shake of his head. "There is one team I wouldn't mind working with, though."

"And who would they be?" Atalanta asked with curiosity.

"Oh... just a team who managed to get my attention." Shirou said with a small smile. "Team STRQ... Probably the most promising team out of them all. Their team leader is a little bit younger than the rest of us, but she'll grow on you with time. You'll probably like her."

"A female team captain..." Atalanta muttered with a small smile. "Perhaps seeing her wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Shirou!" A voice called out from behind them, making them turn to see Summer running up to them with a smile. "You're back! Everyone already began settling into their dorms two hours ago, where have you been?"

"Don't be so shocked, Summer." Shirou muttered as he rubbed his head. "I just went into the city for a while and visited some relatives, it's not like I went into another kingdom or something."

"But you're always gone at the most important moments!" Summer chastised with a cute pout. "You didn't even tell us where you were going this time..."

"Probably because Ozpin dragged me away." Shirou said with an amused smile as he poked her forehead, making her pout even more.

"You could have at least told me before leaving..." She muttered dejectedly before she finally noticed the green haired huntress staring at her with a look that was a mix of amusement and curiosity. "Eh? W-who are you?"

"Hm..." Atalanta muttered, paying no heed to the question as she eyed the girl from head to toe. "Leader of Team STRQ... You're right, she's certainly very interesting." She smiled and held her hand out. "Greetings. My name is Atalanta, I'm a childhood friend of Shirou."

"A-ah, I'm Summer Rose." Summer muttered, her demeanor reverting shyly as she gripped Atalanta's hand. _"She's absolutely beautiful..."_ Summer thought as she eyed Atalanta's perfect figure. She may have been a little bit more muscular than a regular woman, but she was still insanely gorgeous. Even with her... cat ears and tail?

"You're a faunus?!" Summer yelped in surprise as she pulled her hand back abruptly, causing Atalanta to frown.

"Is that a problem?" The huntress asked, feeling a little bit disappointed at Summer's reaction.

"N-no!" Summer said quickly as she waved her hands around in a childlike manner. "I was just surprised! That's all!" She meekly crossed her hands behind her back and shyly glanced at the animal features. "Can I... Touch them?"

Atalanta blinked before smiling kindly. "Of course. I don't mind." Receiving the all clear, Summer hesitantly reached her right hand up to Atalanta's cat ears and began poking at them as if they would suddenly shrink away from her. Gaining a little bit more confidence, she reached out with her left hand and did the same to Atalanta's tail.

"So cool..." Summer whispered in awe at being able to touch a live faunus. "I-I've never been this close to a faunus before..."

Atalanta giggled at the girl's shyness. "There's no need to be so shy. I won't bite."

"I know that. It's just..." Summer trailed off with an uncomfortable look. "You know..."

"I am not involved in the war down in Vacuo whatsoever." Atalanta assured her. "Honestly, you don't have to be so paranoid. Shirou has told me that you're a team leader. Do not be nervous over the most trivial things, or you'll be plagued with doubt." The huntress lectured.

"O-ok!" Summer said, feeling a little bit more at ease at Atalanta's soft tone.

"Look at you two, getting along so well." Shirou said with an amused tone as he watched the two girls interact.

"You're just jealous." Atalanta scoffed as she ruffled Summer's hair.

"Couldn't care less." Shirou said with a shrug, earning another pouty look from Summer.

"You're mean..." She muttered cutely.

"My son wasn't always like that, you know."

Kiritsugu walked out from under the nearby trees with a small smile. "He was kind of like you, actually. Young, brash, kind if an idiot."

"Dad." Shirou warned with a half-hearted glare in contrast to his father's amused smile.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Kiritsugu said with a shrug.

Summer stared at the man in front of her in surprise. "Where are all these people coming from? And did shirou call this person, dad?"

Indeed, upon closer inspection, the man shared several characteristics with Shirou. The grey hair, tan skin, and red shroud were almost matching. The only big difference was the body armor and weapons that he had holstered on his waist. He had the looks of a professional hunter. Certainly much more capable looking than most of the hunters she'd seen.

"Excuse me for my appearance." Kiritsugu apologized when he caught Summer staring. "I arrived on such short notice and didn't have time to change." He raised his hand. "Kiritsugu Emiya."

"S-summer Rose." Summer introduced curtly as she shook his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you." Kiritsugu said with a smile before turning to Shirou. "Just came by to tell you that I won't be in town for a while. I'm heading down to Vacuo."

"Vacuo?" Shirou said with surprise.

"What for?" Atalanta asked as she wondered what the former assassin would need to do down there.

"Mission." Kiritsugu said simply. "Ozpin gave it to me himself, so I couldn't exactly turn it down."

"A mission from the headmaster?!" Summer squeaked in surprise. "What is it, What is it?!"

"That's..." Kiritsugu began, making everyone lean forward to hear him. "... A secret."

"Aw..." Summer muttered, obviously disappointed at not getting the scoop.

"Men." Atalanta muttered in annoyance while Shirou just gave her a pat on the back.

"It's top secret, it's not like I can just tell it to anyone." Kiritsugu said in amusement as he poked Summer's forehead. "Especially not to a little huntress in training such as yourself."

Summer huffed, obviously annoyed at being called little. Kiritsugu just ignored it and turned to look at Shirou, although one could tell that he was trying hard not to laugh out loud at Summer's expense. He had a feeling she wouldn't appreciate that.

"Before I go, I'm going to need you to do something for me." Kiritsugu said, causing Shirou's eyebrow to raise.

"What do you need?"

Kiritsugu gained a gleam in his eyes. "Tell me, can you project Avalon?"

* * *

Several hours later, Kiritsugu had boarded a train and was already zooming towards Vacuo. There weren't many people on the train because not many were willing to get involved with the problems that they were dealing with. The rest of the passengers were mostly Faunus with a few humans here and there. The two species usually kept to separate sides of the train, not willing to interact with each other.

That was fine by him. He didn't need to deal with a bunch of irate, racist people.

Still, he kept his eyes open. This place reminded him too much like the middle east. For all he knew, the train could possibly be hijacked or blown up. Possibly both at the same time if his crappy luck role failed him again.

He didn't have to worry about hiding any of his weapons. His Thompson Contender, Walther WA2000, and Calico M950 were all weapons that were most used by him during his life and was incorporated into his legend and sublimated as his noble phantasms, allowing him to summon them whenever he needed to. Thus, it allowed him to free up inventory space for more helpful items such as claymores, c4 plastic explosives, and grenades.

At least being a counter guardian gave him something good.

He sat in his seat and pulled out his newly bought scroll. He had only bought it several days ago, but he certainly appreciated what it could do. He had already exchanged contacts with Ozpin and received several files containing most of the information on The Disciples of Remnant.

He hated this part of the job. Most files were so long that he had to stop himself from falling asleep while he was halfway through reading one. He usually had Maya deal with this type of thing, but she wasn't around to help him.

The thought of passing it onto Dante crossed his mind several times, but he decided against him. The count would probably rather burn it instead of read it, not that he could blame him.

"Oi, boss."

Speak of the devil.

"What are you reading?" Dante asked as he sat opposite of him with a can drink in his hand.

"Information on our target." Kiritsugu said casually as he placed his scroll on the table between them and faced it towards the count. "There's a lot, but I've already managed to organize several key pieces of information."

Dante picked up the scroll and whistled as he began reading the contents. "Countless acts of terrorism... Arms dealings... Drug trafficking... We certainly have quite the group here."

"The stereotypical terrorist organization." Kiritsugu said as he took back the scroll. "They claim to act in the interest of human kind, but they certainly have their own agendas. Headmaster Ozpin himself has hired us as a last ditch effort to avoid the final solution. If we fail, the kingdoms will have no choice but to unleash military power all over Vacuo, and that won't be good for anybody."

Dante grunted. "Then we can't afford to fail. I'm assuming you have a plan?"

"Not yet." Kiritsugu admitted. "I'll come up with something when we get off and get a feel for our surroundings."

"Whatever you say, boss." Dante said as he kicked his feet up on the table. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers as if he was remembering something. "By the way, I just came here to tell you that I just saw some shady looking people coming from the suite cabin."

"Shady?" Kiritsugu frowned. "In what way?"

"Well... They were wearing black suits, had shades on, and were carrying guns."

Kiritsugu blinked. "Guns?"

Suddenly, the familiar sound of gun fire rang throughout the train. Kiritsugu kicked the table over and ducked as the bullets flew over his head. Passengers screamed and dove for cover in a panic as five men with guns and masks entered the cabin.

One of the men pumped a shotgun and fired into the roof. "All of you filthy animals remain where you are! If you move, we wil-" The man was cut off as kiritsugu stood up from behind the table and summoned his calico into his hand. Firing a brief triple tap, the bullets slammed into the man and sent him flying. His aura not activating because of the surprise that a passenger was fighting back.

"Kill him!" One of the men roared, recovering from their surprise quickly. The remaining four men began aiming their guns before a sudden flash of movement slammed into them and knocked them all backwards into the wall of the cabin, knocking them out. Standing above them was Dante, casually still taking sips from his soda can.

"These are the guys, boss." Dante said as he kicked one of them over. "There were more of them. 18 if I'm not mistaken."

"Certainly a big group." Kiritsugu muttered as he lowered his gun and frowned. "These men are just the grunts who were supposed to corral the passengers. The rest are probably heading for the front of the train."

He had dealt with these kinds of people before. Taking over the train and hijacking it was most likely their main goal. Therefore, the rest of them were probably heading towards the front of the train and were going to kill the conductor.

"You go ahead to the front, boss." Dante said as he threw his can on the floor and stomped on it. "I'll stay here and take care of the passengers."

Kiritsugu nodded before frowning as he heard the sound of footsteps above him. "They're coming in from above. Stay sharp. Whatever you do, don't let a single one of them leave here alive." With that, Kiritsugu opened the door to the next carriage and began making his way to the front of the train.

"Like you need to tell me that." Dante muttered before he turned to the Faunus passengers who were lying down on the floor. "All of you listen up. I want all of you to stay in the back of the train and hide there until it's safe to come out. Right now, these people want to kill you and everyone else on board. It'll be much easier for me to protect you if you're in a much safer environment."

"W-why should we listen to you, human?" One of the faunus objected, causing Desmond to frown.

"Because I'm trying to save your life. Either you get in the back or I throw you in there with force. Your choice."

The faunus decided that being thrown by the strange man was definitely not a good idea. They all got up and slowly made their way towards the back of the train, leaving Dante alone in the quiet cabin.

"Good. Now that that's out of the way..." He muttered as he looked up towards the roof at the sound of welding and saw that sparks were starting to burn through as the terrorists began their infiltration. Dante gave a feral grin as his body cackled with electricity. "It's time for Edmond Dante to make his debut."

The roof gave way and 7 more men dropped through, prompting Dante to action as his fists cackled with electricity and barely restrained fury took over.


	8. Chapter 8

Kiritsugu grunted as he passed through another set of doors. Dead Faunus passengers, with a small mix of humans, laid dead at his feet. The hijackers apparently weren't picky on whoever they pointed their gun at as long as it made things easier for them.

Shamefully, it reminded him too much of himself.

He shook his head and continued on, pushing his thoughts to the back of his mind. He couldn't afford to be distracted. He might have been a counter guardian, but he underestimated nobody. Not even people who were weaker than himself.

He opened the doors towards the next carriage and ducked back as several bullets impacted the space above him.

"Backup!" The assailant called out as he fired off another set of rounds. Kiritsugu grunted in annoyance and carefully peaked out around the corner to see what he was dealing with.

It was just a single man standing between the rows of seats. He was holding gun that sported a red and black paint job, giving it an imposing look. Covering most of his body was a black vest that glowed with a strange hum.

Kiritsugu narrowed his eyes. He had heard of such types of clothing before. Using dust, people were able to sow it into their clothing, giving them a slight edge in combat.

He wasn't sure what would happen if he shot it, but he didn't have much a choice right now. He didn't feel safe touching it, but he didn't have much of a choice. The guy was getting closer, and his friends would be appearing soon.

He took a deep breath before throwing himself out into the corridor and expertly fired his guns in small bursts.

The man's head snapped back as the bullets slammed into his aura. He was throwing backwards into the wall, but he was obviously going to get back up soon.

Reaching into his holster, Kiritsugu grabbed a throwing knife and tossed it with expert precision, piercing the mans aura and embedding in his skull.

As the man laid motionless on the ground, Kiritsugu kept his distance. Inching forward slowly, he raised his gun and fired once into the man's chest piece.

There was a crackle of electricity, and the man's chest exploded into tendrils of electricity as the lightning dust inside was set off.

"Interesting." Kiritsugu muttered as he carefully strode past the dead man. "A form of armor that doubles as a suicide vest. These men are clearly comitted to their cause."

Those were the type of people Kiritsugu was afraid of the most. Power meant nothing to him, but those who were willing to do whatever it took to achieve their goal were the most troubling to deal with.

It was the reason why he hated having an enemy like Kotomine Kirei in the fourth holy grail war.

He continued onwards, pushing past a few dead bodies and suddenly halted when the doors in front of him opened and a man stepped forward with a red sword in his hand.

The man froze for a second when he saw him, but Kiritsugu was already moving into action. Lunging forward, Kiritsugu drove a fist into the man's chest, causing him to double over in pain.

"Guh!" The man grunted as he felt the wind get knocked out of him.

Kiritsugu may have the body of an olympic athlete, the man he was dealing with was bigger than him by a foot. He wouldn't be able to simply beat the man to death easily with his fists.

So he opted for the next best thing.

Grabbing the man in a bear hug, he raised him off the ground and began to squeeze him as hard as he could, effectively crushing him with a bear hug.

The man gasped as he felt Kiritsugu begin to crush him with his arms and began struggling to gasp for air. However, he thought that this move was simply the warm up to the real event.

It wasn't. Kiritsugu wasn't the type of man to give anyone second chances in a fight. When the man finally figured out that Kiritsugu wasn't planning to let him go, he became crazy with panic and began raining desperate blows on his back with his elbows.

"Tough shit." Kiritsugu thought as he felt the man's ribs crack and a dribble of blood forced its way out of the corner of his lips. "You're wasting air, and you're not getting any more."

The man went limp in his arms and kiritsugu sighed in relief. He threw the man down and continued on course for the front of the train.

Avenger had said that the total amount of men for this operation was 18. Since they had already taken out 5 earlier, and Dantes was fighting seven more, counting the two he just killed, they only had four more left.

He passed through two more train cars before he finally reached the door to the conductor's room. His hand went towards the knob before freezing as he heard the sounds of talking on the other side.

Carefully pressing his ear against the door, he began listening on the conversation the private conversation.

"...I told you to eliminate all of the passengers, fool! Having even a single one alive is a liabilty!"

"I'm sorry, Ma'am." A gruff voice apologized.

Kiritsugu frowned. A woman? It seems she was the one in charge. Avenger must have missed her when he was making his rounds.

"It doesn't matter." The female snapped with an annoyed tone. "We have already changed the trains path towards one of our station. Once we get there, we will begin unloading the dust immediately. Leader won't be pleased with the delays."

"But Ma'am... What about those who are taking care of our men?"

"We shall kill them. Plain and simple." The woman said, although there was a slight edginess in her tone. "Seven of our men have already gone dark. The two we stationed outside went down a minute ago. What I can't understand is why we haven't gotten any-"

The woman paused, causing Kiritsugu to frown for a moment as to why she went silent. A second later, she spoke again. This time, however, he barely heard her.

"...He's right outside."

Kiritsugu's eyes widened before he rolled away from the door and ducked behind a row of seats. No more than a second later, numerous bullets were fired straight through the door in a messy arc, wizzing past his head.

Several glass windows and bottles exploded into shards as they were torn apart by the bullets, causing Kiritsugu to shield his eyes to prevent them from blinding him.

Several seconds later, the storm of bullets halted and kiritsugu lifted his head slightly off the ground. His hand gripped the Calico as the woman spoke once again.

"Go check it out. Make sure that the intruder is dead." The woman commanded. Kiritsugu tried to crane his head to see over the seats but he was stopped by the sound of crinkling glass.

He laid still as he heard the men begin sweeping the rows. He inwardly smiled to himself. These men were amateurs. If they were smart, they would begin with sweeping away the glass to make the environment more favorable.

He raised his gun and pointed it towards the sound of the crinkling glass. He didn't even have to bother aiming for this one.

He held down the trigger and sprayed the gun wildly. Surprised yells came from behind the seats and the sound of bodies hitting the floor followed soon after. Standing up quickly, he emptied the next few rounds into the remaining men and sent them down to the ground in an explosion of red haze.

"So you're the person who has been dealing with my boys."

Two women appeared from behind the destroyed door, brandishing several crude combat knives. The one who had spoken was a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties. She was definitely beautiful, but her hands reeked of blood from those of past victims. It resembled his own hands, but her number couldn't compare to his.

The woman standing next to him was probably in her late thirties. Across her neck was a noticeable scar, giving him the impression that her voice box had been damaged. In her hand was a crude butcher knife that was meant to be used in the kitchen and had absolutely not been intended to be a weapon used for killing. That didn't mean it couldn't be used for it, though.

"A single man... To think that it would only take a single man to deal with all of my guards." The younger woman scowled with a shake of her head as she tightened her grip on the knife.

"Actually, I have a partner, but I don't need him to help me take you out." Kiritsugu said with a scowl as he regarded the woman in front of him. His calico had just clicked on empty with his last attack, putting him at a small disadvantage since he needed to reload. However, that was why he always kept another weapon on hand.

"I am perfectly capable of doing it myself." His Thompson Contender appeared in his hand and he pointed it at the younger woman. He didn't have the time to make any origin rounds, but the round that the Contender shot was a .22 long rifle. A caliber big enough to compare to sniper rifle rounds. With such a powerful round, he would be able to pierce the woman's aura without a problem.

The problem with the Contender was that it only chambered one round. He wouldn't be able to fire another round without opening the chamber, taking out the shell, and putting another round inside. It was the reason why it was his ace in the hole against the more powerful opponents who couldn't be simply taken out with his regular methods.

But he had a feeling that the cards were in his favor. He could easily shoot the woman with one round and take out the other with hand to hand combat. If push comes to shove, he could activate his special ability and let his knives take it from there.

"Hmph. It seems you don't understand the situation you're in." The woman scoffed. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small device that somewhat resembled a radio. Holding it up, she pointed to several small lights that were aligned on the box. As of now, 17 of the lights were put out while only a single one remained on.

"This, my dear, is a device we use to keep track of all our subordinates. It works by using the dust that's woven into their clothes as a sort of beacon to establish a connection. The dust is primed to go off when one of them dies, shutting off a light on the dial."

Kiritsugu frowned as he stared at the dial. If what she was saying is true, then that means...

He established his connection to Avenger.

 _"Avenger, how many grunts have you killed?"_

* * *

Edmond Dante normally didn't find joy in many things. Most of his personality took a dramatic turn for the worse when he was imprisoned in the hellish hole of Chateau d'lf. Conditions were horrible, prisoners were treated horribly, and constant battle for territory was almost enough to make him commit suicide until he found friendship with Faria the Mad Priest.

With newfound determination, he quickly acclimated to life within the prison. The strong survived while the weak were purged. Surviving with a mind of steel and countless hours of physical training inside of the prison gave him incredible physical ability and powers. It also helped that Faria also taught him many useful abilities like combat, reading, math, Etc.

His cold determination and physical prowess made him a monster into the form of a man. Boasting incredible speed on the brink of thought, and physical prowess on par with B-ranked strength, he was an effective killing machine.

And his opponents were learning that the hard way.

He had already torn of one man's arm, crushed another's skull with his foot, and even roasted two more with an electric current.

All of this had occurred in the time of 5 seconds.

The remaining three men stepped back in fear at the corpses of their allies.

"I-impossible!" One of the men stuttered. "I-I didn't even see him move!"

"Oi." Edmond began, causing all three men to flinch. "It's rude to talk about people who are standing in front of you, ya know?" He picked up one of the terrorist's gun and looked at it with distaste. "Bleh, I hate the concept of these things. At least shooting a bow and arrow takes some skill."

The men raised their guns in defense as Edmond pointed the gun at them with a cold glare. Suddenly, the count grinned and thumbed the eject button, letting the clip slide smoothly out of the grip and hitting the floor with a loud, but menacing, thud.

"Like I said, I don't particularly like these things." He continued as he ejected the loaded round with a click. "It takes away the exciting rush of the moment." He tossed the gun lazily into the corner and gave them a cold smile. "Pulling a trigger... It's like calling a fast found restaurant and ordering take out."

"Y-you're insane..." One of the men stuttered as they slowly began moving back from the Avenger.

Edmond just simply continued smiling and flexed his muscles, earning a satisfying crack in response. "Now this... is the thing. Killing your prey up close and personal while watching the fear in their eyes is satisfying to me. Almost like a drug, you see." The floor creaked as he stepped towards them.

"This is the rush." The men raised their weapons.

"And this... is what I do."

The men opened fired, creating a hail of led in front of them that should have been impossible to dodge. Edmond, on the other hand, just simply smiled and rushed forward in blinding speed, almost taking the form of a blue beam as he maneuvered around the bullets.

"K-keep shooting!" The man ordered as he put another mag into his gun and continued firing.

"A-are we even hitting him?!"

"This man is a monster!" The third man yelled in panic, before suddenly exploding into a pink of red mist as Edmond's fist, flying at super speed, smashed into the right side of his head and caved his entire skull in.

"You're damn right." Edmond said with a smile as he casually tossed the body behind him and turned towards the other men. "By the way... You guys are missing these. Here, I'll give them back to you. Opening his gloved hand, Edmond revealed the smoldering bullets in his hand.

"H-he caught the bullets?!" Man number two cried out in dismay as he stared at the lead in the avenger's hand. "Impossible! It's one thing to dodge the bullets, but catching them?! You're a freak!"

"You're looking a little bit queasy." Edmond pointed out as he gripped the bullets. "You could use a nap. Ciao." With a quick flick of his wrist, Edmond tossed the bullets with enough force to travel at a speed fast enough to look like it had been fired out of a gun once again. The man's aura attempted to shield him, but the hail of bullets managed to finally pierce the energy and kill him, leaving one final man alone to take care of.

"Seems like number three is your unlucky number." Edmond joked with a jovial tone.

"W-wait!" The man yelped, scrambling backwards until his back touched the wall.

"Nothing you say can save you now." Edmond shrugged. "I was originally going to take you hostage and pry some answers out of you, but you're just a grunt. And a grunt isn't good for anything other than cannon fodder." He reached out quickly and grabbed the mans neck with his right hand, causing the man to wheeze as he began pressing on his throat.

"N-no..." He pleaded pathetically as he struggled in his grip.

"Sorry. Can't exactly have you go anywhere and blab about me or my boss." He chuckled. "At least be thankful that you won't have to figure out what your right testicle tastes like." With a surge of energy, he snapped the man's neck with a sickening crack.

"And that's that." Edmond sighed as he rubbed his hands. "Not even a challenge." He went around and rummaged through the men's belongings as he tried to see if he could find anything that could help them in Kiritsugu's investigation. Unfortunately, the only thing he came up with was a bunch of Lien, bullets, and grenades. No wallet or nothing. The dust infused into their clothes had gone off and melted most of their possessions. As he was rummaging around, he suddenly perked up as his master's voice reached his ears through their telepathy.

 _"Avenger, how many grunts have you killed?"_

 _"Seven, boss. Why?"_

 _"Are you sure you killed only seven?"_

Edmond frowned as he looked around at the destroyed corpses around the room. _"Definitely seven, boss. Why?"_

 _"Oh... shit. Hold on, I'll be right back."_

Edmond blinked in confusion before shrugging. His master was probably having a bit of a problem right now.

Totally not his problem. Right now, he just wanted to kick back and relax. Popping up a chair, he sat down and placed his legs on a nearby table. Grabbing a nearby canned drink that had somehow managed to survive the exchange, he popped it open and began drinking.

He was way too tired to even go help his master anyway.

* * *

"Booooring..." Summer muttered as she watched the history teacher, Professor Firdaus Taliesin Schultheiss, gave her the first lecture of their year. He was an old guy with pale white hair and an equally pale beard. Despite how boring his lectures usually are for her, she liked him the best out of the other teachers. He was more laid back, and he looked like a much more nicer person.

"You should at least pay attention." Raven chided with an amused smile as she bopped her leader's head. "History isn't that boring once you start paying attention."

Summer pouted. "But I don't like it..."

Raven shook her head. "Honestly, you act like a little girl sometimes. I mean... I get that you're shorter than the rest of us and all, but you're still our age."

"Hey... I'm not that short." Summer muttered as she buried her face in her open textbook with a bored look.

"You're still a head shorter than the rest of us." Raven said with a sly smile.

"I'm not that short. You're just too tall." Summer grumbled as the bell finally rang, signaling the end of class. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally... I'm so done with this class."

"Remember, don't forget to bring your supplies with you to class! I know it's just the beginning of the school year and all, but that is no excuse!" Professor Firdaus said with a stern tone as the students began quickly filing out of the classroom. As he sat back at his desk, he shook his head. "Youngsters these days... So irresponsible."

"Old timer." Raven muttered as she gathered up her textbooks. "Wonder what the boys are doing."

Even with the distribution of teams, not all members of the same team have the same class schedule unless it's in the combat class to work on teamwork. It was odd, but it was just to allow them to learn how to function independently from their team.

"Probably doing boy stuff." Summer said as her mind drifted towards her teammates. "You think they're okay on their own?"

Raven shrugged. "Qrow is actually a pretty responsible guy, but he likes to take things at his own pace. I'm not sure about Tai Yang, though. He seems a little too... hot headed."

"You got that right." Summer giggled, knowing how hot headed Tai could be at times. "I'm sure Qrow will be able to reign him in. If not, then I'm sure Shirou would do so too."

"Speaking of Shirou, where did he go yesterday?" Raven asked as they headed towards the cafeteria. "I didn't see him at the dorms."

"He went to Vale to see family." Summer said with a shrug. "His dad also came here to see the school. Pretty cool looking, too."

"His dad was here?" Raven said with surprise. "That's surprising. What was he like?"

"Well... His name was Kiritsugu Emiya. I've never heard of him before, but he said that he was given an important job with headmaster Ozpin. He never explained what it was, but he asked Shirou about something called 'Avalon'. Do you know what that is?"

Raven frowned. "Avalon? Never heard of it. Certainly nothing with a name like that in the history books. Perhaps we could ask Shirou later?"

"Maybe." Summer said with a shrug. "He doesn't tend to talk about himself, though. He's not a very sociable person."

"What was that?"

The two girls jumped in surprise as Shirou suddenly appeared behind them. He had changed into his regular uniform, but it looked strangely odd on him. Without his combat suit, it was strange for him to look like a regular teenager.

"A-ah, nothing!" Raven said quickly as she regained her composure. Shirou gave them a confused look before shrugging.

"Hn. Whatever you say." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I was just heading over for lunch. Mind joining me? We didn't talk much after the initiation yesterday, and I would like to catch up."

"Sure!" Summer agreed immediately with a grin, causing Shirou to smile as he heard Atalanta's voice come through their link.

 _"You were right. She is quite the person."_ She said with a warm tone as she floated around them in spirit form. _"Although, I can't understand why you're nicer with her rather than with anyone else."_

 _"She reminds me too much like myself. It's perhaps the reason why I can possibly stand her."_ Shirou thought with a jovial tone. _"Too childlike for her own good, but she has big goals like mine. For what it's worth, I would like for her to at least achieve her dream without ending up like me."_

 _"What a caring person you are, Shirou."_ Atalanta said with a smile of approval.

Shirou simply smiled. "Well... Let's go and find a spot to eat. Tai and Qrow can come and meet us there if they want." He held up a small basket. "I also personally made some extra food for you two. It may look plain, but trust me, it is nothing short of perfection."

He had gained many titles like 'The Magus Killer' or 'The Wrought Iron Hero', but there was one title that he prided over them all.

And that is, 'The god of the kitchen.'

Indeed. Such a title was also what he was known for. Despite being a mercenary for hire, legends among chiefs and magi around the world told stories of his delicious cooking that was said to be able to rival the food of the gods.

He found the idea ridiculous at first, but soon just rolled with it. People tended to let their imagination run wild, so it was best to just let it be.

"Nothing short of perfection, eh? Very well, let's see if you're not just all talk." Raven said with a sly grin as she eyed the basket.

"Oh trust me, whatever comes out of my mouth is nothing but the truth." Shirou replied with a smirk as he grabbed Summer by the shoulder and began steering her towards the cafeteria. "Cmon, Summer. Let's hurry up and find a seat so we can eat already."

"Y-yes!" Summer yelped, surprised at the sudden contact. Raven just shook her head in amusement at her leader before following after them.

She wasn't a beggar, but there was a reason why she was named Raven, after all.


End file.
